Irony
by Angel of Fate1
Summary: -Tentative title; Tactician-centric- Running away to fight and/or find yourself is one thing. Running away to escape from your arranged marriage is another. -Multiple genres; pairings undecided-
1. Prologue

Hitomi: o.o Whoa… I haven't been to this fandom for years and, truth be told, I'm happy it's growing. But, I miss writing FE fanfiction, so it's about time I write something about it again (blame the fact I recently became a full time FE addict again since I am playing Sword of Seals in English while playing Blazing Sword on the side too). So, I'm back again. For those who know me, I'm back and hope you'll welcome me back! To those who are new in the FE fandom, welcome and I hope you'll like my work!

I've no idea what made me thought of this story idea, but… Maybe it's because I'm sick of tacticians having a dark past and stuff (and I admit I had been one of them). But while my tactician still retains somewhat of a serious past, I want her motives of being a tactician—while keeping it serious—to be a little more on the humorous side as well. Also, small note: I'll be having OCs in here aside from the tactician; OCs that are based off of friends since I've been close knit to them in the FE fandom over these past few years (and we would claim places in Elibe as our own, anyway, when it comes to RPs and what not). Of course, there are some OCs of mine that'll be in here too.

There is something I want to say, in terms of this first chapter… XD It's not how you think it'll start. *snickers* Enjoy!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Prologue** |** Not a Typical Once Upon a Time!**

「_It's time to break the rules and there's not a care in the world for once!_」

* * *

The world of Elibe was truly something to travel in with different kingdoms and places to go to. For those who liked peaceful scenery, blue skies, and even bluer seas, Badon was a place worth going to. Despite the fact there were pirates around, it was a bustling, lively town that resided by the ocean with a harbor. All of Elibe relied on Badon to do import and export trading for their needed supplies while Badon relied on trade from other lands as their main source of livelihood.

Still surrounded by ocean, and surprisingly with trees too, was Badon Manse. Several feminine voices spoke their opinions on the manse, obviously in awe of it.

"Oh my, what beautiful railings."

"I've never seen such a lovely shade of yellow..."

"Look at the walls! The stone is so sturdy I wouldn't be surprised if it doubled as foundation."

"How do they ever make these stairs? It must've been difficult to carve into the stone!"

"The archways in the stony walls are exquisite! It adds the feeling of adventure to explore~"

"Hehe, if this was described as food, I'd say it's like a cake! Just look at it! A yellow cake that may have sat in the oven just a bit too long and became slight goldenrod, mildly singed on the surface. It came in four layers, each separated by a guardrail made of icing. Intricate strawberries baked into each cascading wall."

In the manse's massive, extravagant lobby was a small crowd of young females, all of which were ogling the guy who happened to be the owner of the gorgeous house.

"You girls are beautiful as usual," the young male commented suavely, giving them a wink that surely made them swoon. "I must be lucky to be in the presence of such beauties, eh?"

"Oh, Lord Keiya, you're far too kind!" One woman piped up, pink with embarrassment and flattery.

"In fairness, you're quite handsome." Another sighed contently, obviously lovestruck with the young man. "It would be nice to marry you, I'm sure!"

The twenty two-year-old grinned at all of the compliments they were giving him, trying not to look bashful. His black hair, neck length, was tied up in its usual, loose ponytail while soft grey eyes were watching the females behind spectacles. He was wearing flamboyant clothes, a cape, and one of his ears looked to be pierced if one looked carefully but there was no telling because of the long bangs that framed his face. Despite being how old he was, he still had a boyish air to him.

"Kei."

Turning around, Keiya met the solemn, golden eyes of his twenty three-year-old best friend and bodyguard, Rai. Rai was, to put it simply, the opposite of Keiya in some ways. Unkempt, short red hair graced his sharp features and it was often than not that Rai kept a sword constantly at his side. Though he kept a neutral expression at times, it seemed that he looked tense from the way his mouth was pressed into a thin line.

Nodding silently to him, sensing something was amiss, Keiya had to bid the ladies goodbye.

"Aw, so soon?" One gushed, pouting. The others were making similar remarks, to which Keiya waved them gently aside.

"I'm sorry, ladies, but it's an important manner." Apologetic, he gave them a serene smile that surely melted their hearts instantly. "Please, excuse me for today. I hope I'll be able to make it up to you next time."

"You always do~ Then, all right, we'll be leaving. Goodbye, Lord Keiya!" The ladies yelled happily in chorus, bustling out the door.

Once they were gone, Keiya nodded to Rai again. Taking the cue, Rai turned about face and took the lead, making their way up to the Chancellor's room. It was spacious enough to move around in, with numerous bookshelves and a bed that faced the window. The floor was wooden and polished brightly that the sun's rays reflected on it. In the center of the room was a tidily kept desk, on it some papers as well as an ink bottle and a quill already prepared for writing.

There, Keiya sat down on the desk's chair and saw that at one corner of his desk settled an exquisite teapot of his usual Earl Gray tea, courtesy of one of the many maids that worked in the manse. As he poured himself a generous helping in a matching cup, Rai followed suit and shut the door softly.

"Kei." Rai began again, being the one to break the silence first.

"Now, now, Rai." Keiya chided gently, relishing the warmth of the tea as well as its flavor, a playful light in his eyes. "I told you that now I'm the Chancellor, you should address me properly."

To which he tried again calmly with, "…Lord Kei."

Setting down his tea cup a moment, Keiya gave Rai a serious look, an eyebrow raised.

"AHEM."

Sighing lightly but still complying, the bodyguard finally said what the other wanted in a rather blunt fashion, "…Your Royal Eminence, Lord Kei, Grand Chancellor of the Principality Free State of Badon."

"That's better~" Keiya said happily, resuming to drink his tea, clearly in an extremely good mood. At this, Rai rolled his eyes, wondering why he was putting up with the other's antics like this, as always. True, he was the Chancellor but did he really have to make him call him by his extremely long title? Was it too much to ask to even address him as Kei once in a while? For Elimine's sake, they were long time best friends!

Deciding to have Keiya snap out of his airhead ways, as this often happened when he was in the company of women, Rai interrupted with quite a sudden, serious remark, "Your fiancée ran away."

At this, Keiya promptly spat out his tea (in which Rai anticipated for by discreetly moving himself inches away from the desk moment before) and went into a violent coughing fit. Finally, after needing some time to settle down, it was then the Chancellor of Badon decided to make his input on such a pressing matter.

"WAIT, WHAT? !"

"Somehow, she had put the guards—both ours and hers—to sleep. Then, using a knife, a wooden bar, and several dresses, she climbed down the walls from her balcony window and escaped with one of our prized horses we left at her place."

This piece of news left Keiya baffled – or rather, the correct word to use was flabbergasted. Face in his hands, he only wondered how it turned out like this. The engagement had been official since the night before, so this was quite unexpected for him – and likely enough, for the princess's brother who was most likely giving Hell to his servants about it by now.

"DAMN IT!"

"I understand your frustra—"

"Man! She used the clothes I gave her for her birthday as rope? ! That's kind of rude to the tailor, you know!"

This promptly got Rai to shut up immediately, whatever concern he had about his best friend on this issue disappeared. Never a thought of Keiya complaining about **that **crossed his mind; but, of course, why would Keiya care about his fiancée when it was clear he was a womanizer in the first place? Again, Rai had to roll his eyes.

"All right," Keiya mumbled quietly, making the other's gaze flicker on him. In a calm voice, he barked out, "Have my bags packed. We're chasing after her!"

"…Yes, yes." Rai sighed, shaking his head as he watched the Chancellor bolted out of the room with such speed to prepare for the journey.

Because he knew Keiya's fiancée very well, Rai had a hunch she would pull a stunt like this. He had to commend her for being gutsy but part of him worried about her well-being since he saw her as a little sister.

_I shouldn't worry too much, though._ Rai mused serenely, going out of the room and going back to his own quarters to pack his things._ Since she did this and she's not what you call an ordinary princess, I'm pretty sure she'll able to take care of herself. I suppose I can't blame her for running away, given how Kei is._

_However… _He let a quiet chuckle escape, shaking his head fondly. _I'm pretty sure her brother's quite furious as we speak. No, I definitely know he is since Rose reported to me earlier that everyone's afraid to go near him now._

"Rai! Are you dillydallying? !" Keiya's loud voice broke him out of his thoughts. "We're already wasting time as it is!"

"Hmmm, I wouldn't talk like that if I were you, Lord Kei." Rai countered quietly, settling his bag over his shoulder as he strode his way out of his quarters and down the stairs to meet up with his impatient liege. "After all, you've never been this concerned for your fiancée until now, yes?"

"What are you talking about?" Keiya huffed agitatedly, looking at him incredulously. "I've always thought of my fiancée."

"Not like this, though. You always seemed uninterested at the prospect of marriage, especially when this has been arranged for a long time. Aside from work, you're always off making conversation with other women and acting like a lout while you're at it. So, you're like this for your fiancée because she's immune to your charm."

"Hmph! That is not true at all!" Keiya refuted adamantly, waving his hand dismissively and turning it into a fist to thump his chest as he spoke proudly, "Me, a lout with women? Why, Rai, I'd say you're jealous that I can charm the ladies oh-so-well. The only reason why my fiancée hasn't fallen for my charms is, well, she hasn't met me yet and she was supposed to do so when the engagement was official the night before."

"There you go again, being a braggart." Rai shook his head in dismay, now knowing that Keiya became seriously airheaded for today. "Let me just point out to you this, then: don't you think, in one's point of view, that your fiancée's stunt is a clear sign of rejection of your engagement? That she actually doesn't want to be with you? That even if she hasn't seen your face, and only knows you by the letters you two have exchanged over the years, she still doesn't want to go through with this?"

At these words, the Chancellor instantly turned to stone, a frozen smile on his face. Realization from this began sinking in after a couple of seconds and he surely wasn't taking it well.

With hands on his hair and ready to pull it out, bouncing around the room like a total spaz, Keiya wailed and fretted and fussed, "St. Elimine, how can this be? ! Not a single girl I've met has ever snubbed me before! I mean, sure, some of the ladies were reluctant on my ways but this…! She gave me a fist to the face just like that without holding back!"

"Exactly… Then again, there is a first time for everything."

"This is too cruel! How could such a woman exist! ?"

"Well, that's not my fault or problem. Consider this as a cruel and unusual punishment. For what, I'm not too sure myself."

"…Rai."

"Yes, my Lord?"

"It would be best if you kept quiet now." Rai was pretty sure Keiya had tears pricking at the corner of his eyes when he hid his face behind a sleeve. Evidently, a gloomy expression was settled on his face. "This wounds me so much, you taking her side."

"Hah," for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, Rai rolled his eyes as he revealed a small smirk. "You're so easy to tease."

"That's not funny!" He snapped back, boring holes through him. "I'm being serious!"

"Whatever you say… Drama king."

"Hey! Don't you know that jokes are only half-meant! ?" Rai only walked past Keiya to go on his way out of the manse, the latter running after him in a mad dash. "Don't ignore me, I'm talking to you! Raaaiii!"

_So, this is how things are going to start. _The myrmidon sighed lightly, exasperated but amused on how the mage was acting, still blocking out what he was saying. They were now on a boat to sail to Badon's port before setting out on their expedition. _Something tells me this is only the beginning of a long adventure._

_Good luck, Princess Shorty. I hope Kei or your brother doesn't catch you.

* * *

_

Hitomi: XD And so, it's like this. Don't worry, the FE7 characters will appear gradually but I hope you guys don't mind the story being taken at a slow pace. Since I still have school and I need to replay the Blazing Sword in order to refresh my memory on how the story goes (since this fic is somewhat of a novelization of FE7), I won't be updating this as frequently. Not to mention I'm sort of new at writing humor (and adventure while we're at it), so I hope you won't be put off by my lack of practice in both genres.

Also, as said in one of my other writings, I'll be talking more about my stories in my blog, which you can find as the homepage link in my profile.

Somehow, I feel that I'm going to have fun writing this one~ I hope you guys liked how the story's started out and I hope you'll be able to enjoy more!


	2. Rumors and Unexpected Ties

Hitomi: First off, much obliged for the feedback given to me. I had edited the prologue and even added a little more to it, though I wonder how people will take that (especially when trying to describe Badon Manse, which I give credit to my friend, Kriven, for helping me with it). Although I really don't know if I did better or worse in the editing... Ugh...

This chapter... Hmmm... Hopefully, I got things across... And for the friends reading this... ^^; My apologies in case of OOC.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Escape I **| **Rumors and Unexpected Ties  
**

「_Word of mouth really does travel fast._

_And sometimes, it can be your worse enemy instead of a helpful ally._

_But, hopefully, you have helpful friends to get you through this__…_

_Right?_」

* * *

It had been about five days since the incident happened. Rumors of the betrothed princess's disappearance had spread all over Elibe like wildfire. There would be hushed whispers from civilians while nobles had opinions of their own when hearing the news. Up to now, they had no clue why the princess ran away or what of her whereabouts but they knew that it may lead to consequences.

"_Did you hear about their princess…?"_

"_Word's been traveling fast about it. Mercy to St. Elimine, I wonder how the kingdom's faring with such an ordeal."_

"_Nobody knows for certain why she disappeared so suddenly. Some say there's also the possibility she decided to run away."_

"_She ran away? ! But what could've possibly happened to give her such a motive? Maybe there's something wrong within the kingdom we're not aware about…"_

"_Well, I heard that the Marquess had decided to banish her because of…"_

"_Impossible! If that were so, Lord Hikaru would've gone along with the princess! Those two are kin and they're so close! And you know how he is around her, so he wouldn't just leave his sister out in the world alone!"_

"_I suppose you're right. Then, I wonder what could've caused this…"_

"_You don't think she… Did something bad, right?"_

"_Of course not! And even if that were the case…"_

"_Just a moment there… I've managed to get an interesting piece of news. A little bird told me that the princess was supposed to be betrothed to the Chancellor of Badon… Maybe it has a connection to this fiasco?"_

"_Huh? ! Are you serious? !"_

There were certain people who knew the princess personally. Because of this, they felt that it was her fiancé's fault for things turning out this way. To say it as bluntly as possible, they all wanted him dead and they had their own methods on carrying that notion out.

"Honestly… What were you thinking? ! Explain what happened, Keiya, or it's off with your head!"

"Ahhhhh! I don't wanna die!"

Apparently, such intentions also explained why Keiya was in Khathelet and currently groveling at the Marchioness's feet for mercy.

"Sweet St. Elimine, Kate, don't kill me for this!" Keiya cried desperately with tears in his eyes, obviously not liking the idea that his impending doom was in the making. As he clung to one of her ankles with a death grip, all he could was beg for his life while cursing his fiancée's close ties with Marchioness Khathelet at the moment since said-female was quite scary when angry. "I swear I didn't know this was going to happen when the engagement was official!"

"I don't care! It still doesn't change the fact she ran away!" Twenty two-year-old Kate shouted hotly, her blue eyes burning a dark anger that told him clearly she wouldn't be swayed easily by his words. It was getting harder for the blonde to restrain herself from inflicting physical harm on him; mercy to St. Elimine, she was already so close to giving a hard kick to get him off her. "This is your fault, Keiya! I don't know what you did to make her run away but I won't have any excuses! She's been apprehensive about this arrangement when it had been made a few years ago, and she had no bloody choice in the matter what with that idiot of a Marquess having the final say, but what the Hell did you do to give into her doubts like this? !"

"That's the thing, though! I've no idea why she did this! Since I've never laid eyes on her before, I wouldn't have done something so careless to scare her off!"

"But I know how you are, having known you long enough! You skirt chasing oaf, you don't even—"

"Lady Kate, Kei is right," Rai murmured quietly, bowing to her in apology. This got the two to stop bickering momentarily and they looked at him inquiringly to continue his explanation. "He has no idea why she ran away. Rose told me neither she nor Lord Hikaru have any clues on the princess's whereabouts. I'm not even sure myself and I'm the closest connection she has in Badon as the arranged marriage established the two were not supposed to see each other until they were officially betrothed. Moreover, having that said, the princess herself hasn't seen Kei either, so she doesn't know him that well other than the letters he's written to her over the years. I humbly ask for your forgiveness as I feel this is my responsibility. After all, I see the princess as a sister and I failed on having not foreseen these circumstances, given how she is."

"Geez, about time you defended me." Keiya growled irritably, shooting Rai a sharp glare from over his shoulder. "You could've spoken up right from the beginning of this mess but you've decided to stay quiet the whole time!"

"Well, hey, Lady Kate beat me to it, so there was no way I could've said anything without her lecturing me too." Rai commented indifferently with a shrug while the Chancellor of Badon hardened his glower at this. Having known Rai well enough like the back of his hand, he was pretty sure the myrmidon was finding the situation at hand hilarious despite not expressing such openly.

_Lying cad! _Keiya lamented mentally in resentment, considering on killing the cheeky swordsman himself when this was all over. _You just wanted to see me suffer like this! For a bodyguard, you're so cruel, Rai… And I thought we were best friends! Traitor!_

Kate slumped back in her throne with dismay, weaving a hand through her hair in distress as she took Rai's words into consideration. She didn't believe the rumors people were saying about this; in fact, Rose delivered a letter that was written by the princess herself on the day she ran away. It looked like Rai wasn't informed about this because he only mentioned Rose had no clue of her liege's whereabouts, so it seemed that she had been sworn to secrecy as well. The letter's contents, though blunt about the escape, were still vague in detail. Nothing plausible came to Marchioness Khathelet's mind on the reason why the princess had made such a sudden but drastic decision, even after she had read the letter over and over countless times in order to make any sense of it.

_I know you are your own person and you__ tend to have reasons for everything you do… _She was lost in thought, thinking of the girl whom she thought of as a little sister; a daughter, even, despite the age difference (which wasn't much, anyway). _But I wish you told me why you're doing this. What do you plan to accomplish? Or could it be that you're not entirely sure yet? Please, for the love of St. Elimine, stay safe…_

Snapping herself out of these musings, Kate got up immediately, smoothing out the skirt of her pink and red dress. From Rai's observation, she seemed to be clear-minded on whatever she had thought up just now and, to add that she regained her senses, it was then she chose to finally give Keiya a very hard kick to get him off of her leg. Reflexively or intentionally, Rai had no idea but he had to avert his gaze at the sight, trying to fight back a grin as his best friend howled in pain in the background.

"Ow! You could've poked an eye out with those! I don't even want to know how women would think of me if they suddenly saw me wearing an eye-patch…" Keiya made a fuss and got up to his full height, rubbing his head from her surprisingly brutal strength. Not surprisingly, she was wearing high heels, so that explained things.

With hands on hips and a scary glare to boot, Kate snapped back in clipped tones, "Maybe if you had more common sense in that brain of yours, you should've faced this situation like a man instead of begging for mercy on my friend's disappearance! Which I still think it's your fault!"

"My fault? ! She's the one who made the choice to run away from home! How is that my fault? !"

Calming down a little bit all the while rubbing her temples, she resorted on giving him a critical, disdainful look. Her next words were acidic.

"Considering how you're labeled as a womanizer while you two have an arranged marriage, it's no wonder things turned out like this… Although it was her choice to leave her kingdom and she has her own reasons why that even I don't know…" Shaking her head, Kate's expression changed to a somber one, at which Keiya had no idea how to react while Rai merely watched the scenario unfold with slightly raised eyebrows. She continued to murmur calmly, perhaps even in contemplation, "As her fiancé, you have to take some responsibility for it. Therefore, there's only one thing to settle this if it'll help you on your journey to find her…"

The next thing they knew, she was pointing an index finger at them as a sign of declaration. The gloomy mood vanished instantly without a trace.

"So, I'm leaving you with one of my men for your conquest!" They blinked in disbelief when they saw an evil grin forming on Kate's face, her voice taking on a mischievous turn. "And believe me, Keiya, you know him."

"Oh no! No, no, no!" Keiya's face blanched to a stark white, already having an idea where this conversation was going and certainly not liking it at all. Having seen this, Rai was sorely tempted to grin right now but stubbornly kept his poker face up. "If you're talking about him, I am not going through with it! There's no way you are making me team up with him just to find my fiancée!"

"I can, I will, and that's final. You've forgotten he knows the princess personally too and he'd kill any guy within a five foot radius away from her; you, especially, are no exception as you already know." It was hard not to miss the oh-so-sadistic smile in her voice when she said this. "So, better prepare yourself for a long journey ahead, Keiya. Consider this as compensation for making her run away~"

_Oh, you have gotta be kidding me!_ Keiya was pretty sure there was a far cry of inner turmoil at the back of his mind, feeling he was sweating bullets from all of this. A wave of nausea swept through him and he was pretty sure he was close to fainting._ Oh Elimine, why the Hell does my fiancée have such… Violent people within her inner circle…?_

How could Keiya forget about _him_? As if it was already bad enough Lord Hikaru was out for his blood but _that guy_ too? Damn, he really was dead. He made a note, while mumbling strings of curses under his breath, to have a serious talk with his fiancée once they found her; a talk concerning her close connections in Elibe and how he would die an early death because of them. Elimine forbid if she had any more people ready to literally get a piece of him.

This was not what he had in mind at all. The real question in these circumstances was just this: was it really worth it, going through all of this, because of his fiancée?

Well, how can this question be answered honestly if her running away officially signed his death warrant?

_All for the sake of this arranged marriage… And it's not like I even harbor any feelings for her since I don't really know her at all…_

He shook his head, unsure on what to think of anymore, letting out an exasperated groan.

"Looks like you've made quite a lot of enemies, eh, Kei?" Rai's voice snapped the other out of his thoughts. Turning to look at his bodyguard, he had a straight face when making the statement. However, his eyes couldn't deny that he was thoroughly amused by the spectacle. "Just be lucky you've made no enemy out of me despite how close I am to the princess since I am your bodyguard and your best friend."

"Hrm, I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult." Keiya muttered sullenly, another sigh escaping from his lips. "If I knew things were like this, I can only wonder how long this is going to last."

"Not only do you have her associations out for your blood but the fact she ran away because of this engagement still stands and I still say it's quite a blunt way to express the fact she's rejected you with all of her heart." Oh, one could just imagine such knives of words taking a stab at Keiya's heart right now. And it surely looked like it for he wobbled and was ready to fall on his knees, unsure if he would be able to stand such a cold, hard fact constantly being rubbed in his face. "This is truly the first time a girl hasn't fallen for your charm and she hasn't met you yet. Elimine's probably laughing at you at the moment since it's a twist of fate on how this girl is your fiancée. I would count Lady Kate not fawning over you too but I'm not since you've courted her once upon a time from long ago, so it doesn't count."

Kate held back her laughter at this ruthless explanation, hiding her smile behind a hand but her eyes shone with mirth. Poor Keiya, he felt like he could barely stand from such sharp blades.

"…Don't remind me again, please. Do you even know how much my pride hurts from hearing that, especially from you of all people?" In which this cued Keiya to press a hand over his "wounded" heart as emphasis. Unsympathetic, Rai rolled his eyes at his friend's melodrama.

"Just being honest about it is all, my Lord."

"Why you guileless, cheeky b—"

"Well, you're lucky he's not here at the moment or he would've really killed you on the spot the moment he saw you. Although you're welcome to wait for him if you wish considering you're _brave _enough to face Marchioness Khathelet's wrath, so what harm would it do to really look at Death in the face, hm? " A sarcastic voice echoed throughout the throne room, somewhat annoyed of the noise they were making.

"Damn it, Erk!" The blonde fussed at the young mage who appeared in the room, going red with embarrassment on her blunder. It suddenly occurred to Kate she forgotten she sent Charlie out on a mission a week ago. "You just had to go ruin the moment when I wanted Keiya to be quaking in his boots!"

"Well, you have such a scattered brain, so, of course I can't help but take up the opportunity to point things out when they're seriously needed, Kate." Erk rolled his violet eyes, fastening his orange cloak on his shoulders and checking over if he gathered everything he needed to set out. Kate growled in response, annoyed at the fact he managed to make her look foolish again. Keiya felt greatly relieved when hearing about Charlie's lack of presence, feeling a heavy burden lift from his shoulders. "Now that I finally know what's going on here, I need to go out. Lord Pent has given me an errand."

"You mean the assignment where you have to be an escort for a priestess going to Ostia, right?" Although she was still angry at Erk for earlier, Kate was a little concerned about his journey. Never mind being under tutorage of Lord Pent Reglay of Etruria, he was still a mage who had not much experience in magic. On top of that, traveling to Ostia wouldn't be such an easy feat. "Be careful, okay? I don't want you to get hurt out there."

"Yes, I know." He said out of acknowledgment, knowing she had his best interests in mind. To get her mind off of such extra stress, the next reply had a bite to it,"Don't worry so much or else you'll grow old before your time."

Promptly ignoring this, Kate turned to Keiya and Rai, speaking in a considerately softer voice, "Then, I suppose this is it. You two go with Erk for the time being." Looking at Erk again, she asked with a touch of uncertainty, "Is that all right with you? I know you have your errand and all, but…"

"It's not a problem. We'll probably be separating ways, but think about it; this way, not only can I escort my employer to Ostia but I can help look for the princess too." Erk replied seriously, furrowing his brow in thought of the princess. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the princess hasn't gone so far, even if she went by horse, since she ran away a few days ago. If I can evaluate how far she's traveled… I'd say the farthest she's gone would be within the Bern-Sacae border or the Ostia-Etruria border if she was that desperate to go far away from home."

"Hmmm… That's possible…" Rai nodded in agreement at the mage's guess. "Although it'll take time to travel that far, it's better than nothing at all. Knowing her, though, she probably went to Sacae."

"Yeah?" This surprised Keiya, giving Rai a confused expression. "How'd you figure that one out, Rai?"

"She… She'd always tell me how she longed to go back there." Rai mused thoughtfully, a faraway look in his eyes as he recalled such instances. "Because the plains of Sacae remind her of her mother…"

"Ah…" All the male occupants turned to the source of the barely inaudible gasp. Kate's eyes softened noticeably at the mention of this and she looked to have a knowing expression. "That's right… She always wanted to go to Sacae because of that…"

Keiya looked back and forth between Rai and Kate, sensing there was something more to this that they knew and he didn't. Something told him not to delve into it, however, so he refrained from asking.

"Then, all right, we're heading there first." Erk declared in finality, giving Kate a brief bow before turning his back to her to ready for departure. "But if I find my escort on the way, we'll have to separate for a while."

"That's all right," Rai replied in understanding, giving a bow to Kate too. "It'll cover more ground to search for her, anyway, so that's not a problem."

"Kate, rest easy while we're gone." Keiya told Marchioness Khathelet calmly, taking her hand and kissing it. "I'll make sure to bring the princess back safe and sound. Besides, it's not so bad. Doing this means I'll be a knight in shining armor of sorts for my fiancée."

Erk lightly snorted at this while Rai quipped dryly, "And who made you the hero now, Kei? Don't be such a romanticist and don't take all of the credit for yourself." Unfortunately for them, he was not listening.

Wrinkling her nose, she wiped her hand on her sleeve, giving a playful cuff to Keiya's head with the other hand.

"You know I'm still not used to that sort of thing from you." Kate pointed out humorously, shaking her head with feigned annoyance. "Really, Keiya…"

"Aha, you don't need to worry about that." A slight smirk curved on Keiya's face, releasing her hand. "I know, don't overdo it when it comes to the ladies, right? I won't for the sake of my fiancée, although getting to know women other than her better would be nice as a treat on this journey—"

Now, Kate's face hardened into a steely glower as she threatened him, "Don't even joke about that or I will really consider killing you with my bare hands this time. And you KNOW very well I can do it if I wished to."

He shuddered at this, not wanting to get onto her bad side again. When Kate was mad, she wouldn't hesitate to show it and he knew she could very well erase his existence from the face of the Earth. Not that it was a bad thing to him, of course; it just meant she was protective of her loved ones and had the qualities of being a wonderful mother if she chose to have children.

"Then," Keiya bowed down with a flourish, flashing her one last smile. "We'll be taking our leave, then, milady."

"Be careful and don't get into any trouble!" Kate called after the departing men, which Keiya responded with a half-hearted wave without turning around.

Hearing the throne room doors shut with a heavy clang, Marchioness Khathelet sighed and got up wearily, deciding to busy herself in her study with paperwork to distract herself. As she made her way up the staircases from the east wing, only one thought drifted in her mind.

_Please__, Princess… Come home soon…

* * *

_

Hitomi: All right, I'm finally done after a lot of editing and what not. I thought I'd continue writing the chapter further with Keiya asking Rai what his fiancée's actually like. But I think I'll save that for another chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this, even if only a little bit.


	3. A New Chapter in Life

Hitomi: Well, I thought long and hard on how Chapter 2 would be like, so this is how it ended up. Normally, I see people follow the script when it comes to tactician fics (I've yet to find a fic that follows the script AND puts more into it while putting fleshing everyone out) and seeing how they introduce said-character when they meet with Lyn… Might as well do something different about it.

Mind you, I've rewritten this chapter as I've deleted the one that I've written before. I felt that it may've not portrayed it too realistically (and this is what I get for reading good novelizations of FE7 around here), so I needed to do this. I've done my best not to follow the game script, though I will look back at it for reference.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Escape II** |** A New Chapter in Life**

「_Always remain true to yourself, no matter how much people try to change you._

_But is it really okay to break your chains just to find yourself?_」

* * *

The sweet smell of nature wafted in the summer air, a soft breeze passing through the oceans of lush, green grass. The sun shone a soft light, not being harsh as it usually was at this time of year. It was a quiet, calm atmosphere, something one would appreciate if they needed someplace to go, seeking peace of mind. Occasionally, birds chirped their songs without a care in a world; perhaps, it was their own way to tell people that everything will be all right with whatever they were troubled with and just relax for the time being.

In a wooden hut with a thatched roof, a young woman paced about quietly, going back to the still figure on the bedroll and placed a wet washcloth on top of their bandaged forehead. Turning away abruptly, with long, dark green hair in a ponytail flying, she went away again in a general direction to check on the food—which was cooking over an open fire outside—she was preparing for this stranger in case they woke up.

_Looks like they're faring well,_ the young woman mused with relief as her teal green eyes focused on the broth boiling in the pot. _Although I'm still worried since they haven't woken up yet…_

It had been two days since the young woman found this foreign traveler in the plains of Sacae. When she found him or her (she found it difficult to tell their gender due to the hood they put over their head), she was surprised and horrified. The stranger was not only unconscious but they bore wounds. There was a gash on the forehead as well as some lacerations that snaked their way on the hands and arms (such a thing was found out easily when blood seeped and stained the sleeves of their robe).

Luckily, these were not serious injuries, so the young woman was able to close up the wounds on the limbs completely with a vulnerary (she rolled up the sleeves to heal the cuts on her limbs while the forehead needed to be placed in bandages as it didn't close up fully due to the cut's size).

Shortly when the woman brought the stranger in her hut, she felt their skin burning, even through the robe, which told her he/she was sick. And so, she decided on nursing this person back to health until he/she regained consciousness.

Figuring the stew was just about cooked, the Sacaean removed the pot from the fire with its handle, careful not to burn herself with it. Settling it down on the ground temporarily, she grabbed a pail of water nearby and tossed it over the fire, dousing it instantly. Putting it back where she found it, she went back to the cooking pot and lifted it effortlessly, despite its average size.

She made her way back into the house and placed the pot down on a table that was right across the makeshift bed that the stranger occupied; then, proceeded pacing around again, going to the right of the table to get kitchenware from a small shelf.

Within the stranger's conscience, she had an inkling she had been knocked out for some time. In vague awareness, she dared not make any sudden movements as she felt a dull ache rippling through her body. She assessed the pain had been around for as long as she was unconscious from the way it burned in her flesh and ripped through her muscles. Even the slightest motion, such as flexing the fingers, sent up agonized spasms that made her breath hitch.

Seeing only nothing but black, her other senses were trying to pick up as much detail as they could to analyze the current situation. She felt her body settled in something soft and she was snug and warm in it. There was something damp on her forehead but she was unable to tell what it was. Her ears picked up the sound of footsteps and the shuffling of items while soft twittering of birds came from far away. Something aromatic drifted in the air and her nose was breathing it in, knowing now that her stomach was rumbling in protest.

Somehow, probably out of strained effort and exerted willpower, her eyes suddenly met bright light. She groaned woefully as she felt them burning, reflexively using her arm as a shield albeit long bangs covered her eyes.

_Damn it… I shouldn't have done that… _Oh, how she wanted to slap herself, forgetting not to open her eyes so quickly unless she wanted to hurt herself like this.

"Oh! Thank Mother Earth and Father Sky, you woke up!"

Blinking in surprise, the stranger looked around curiously for the source of the relieved, cheerful voice. At last, she spotted a figure on the left side of the room holding a wooden bowl in one hand and a wooden glass in the other. She made note of the young female, taking in every detail of her. From her attire and her beautiful facial features, there was no doubt she was Sacaean. The expression on her face was of a warm smile.

The traveler cursed silently as she brought her body upward to sit up, a throbbing pain pulsing all over her body. Something damp slid off of her forehead and she saw that a wet cloth landed on her blanket covered lap, making her frown in confusion. So many questions came to her mind but she was unsure on where to start first. However, her grumbling stomach beat her to it and the she blushed in embarrassment.

"Hungry?" The younger female teased with a soft laugh, her facial expression mirthful. The stranger gave a hesitant, shy nod, her mouth in a slight grimace to curse her hunger.

Getting two spoons, the Sacaean put one in the pot, scooping the broth in it to pour in the bowl. Then, walking towards the cot, she handed the traveler the bowl of soup and the other wooden spoon, so she could use it to eat. In silent thanks, the stranger took both items, careful not to spill the broth as she ate slowly, careful not to burn her tongue. It was delicious for just stew, with the vegetables and the meat in it. Before the she could voice out her concerns, somehow, the other female must've read her mind on the matter for that she explained in a soft, understanding voice.

"I found you unconscious on the plains. You were like this for two days." A look of concern made its way to her face as she recalled what happened. "You had some injuries on you but I've managed to heal most of it with a vulnerary. Right now, you still have bandages on your forehead to heal the cut there. You… Were also ill too, looking pallid and having a fever, so I placed that wet cloth on you to cool you down."

_So, it's like this. _The stranger nodded slowly in acceptance while she had her thoughts on the matter, eating the stew all the while. _This makes it seven days already since I've set out… _

"Ah? Oh, pardon me! I was just so worried about your current condition that I forgot to introduce myself. I'm sorry! I'm Lyn of the Lorca tribe," the Sacaean gave a sheepish smile from this statement; then, morphed into a friendly one a moment after. "What's your name? Can you remember it?"

As she waited for the other to answer, Lyn took the opportunity to observe the female in front of her. The hair was black and it looked like it had been crudely cut with a blade recently, falling up to her chin in jagged layers and framing the face. However, Lyn couldn't tell exactly what she really looked like due to the long bangs that covered her eyes.

The traveler was about to introduce herself when no sound came of her mouth. Frowning in confusion, she opened it again but, alas, nothing came out at all when she spoke. Eyes wide with shock, she put the now empty bowl and spoon at the right of her as she shot up to her full height.

"What's the matter?" Lyn looked worried, seeing the other's distress. "A-Ah! Don't get up, you haven't fully recovered yet!"

Not listening, she frantically looked around until she found a bag next to the folding bed's left, ignoring the searing pain shooting up her body. Her shoulders slumped in a moment of exasperation and relief as she hastily went back to the cot and sat down on it. Grabbing the bag and rummaging through it, it didn't take long for her to find a book, an ink bottle, and a quill. She settled the ink bottle at the right of her while the book and quill were momentarily on her lap.

Unscrewing the cork from the bottle, she flipped open the book. Dipping the quill in the black substance, she scribbled down on the first, blank page hastily. Looking over her writing and nodding in satisfaction, she held out the book to a confused Lyn.

"Hm? You want me to read it?" Seeing another nod, Lyn took the object and opened it carefully. When she saw the first page, her eyes met with a neat, mostly legible scrawl.

_**My name is Hitomi**__**, so well met, Lyn. Sorry for not listening to you earlier, I know I haven't recuperated fully yet. It's just that when I tried to introduce myself, my voice... I guess… Whatever happened to me (meaning when you found me unconscious two days ago) has caused me to lose my voice. Having said (or in this case, written) that, I'm sorry I couldn't give you a proper introduction and I might've looked like a lunatic when looking for my bag.**_

"So, that's why you couldn't speak. And no, you weren't acting strange. Sorry I didn't notice earlier… That must be difficult to put up with… Hitomi, is it? What an odd-sounding name…" Lyn murmured in thought and she felt Hitomi's stare on her either out of confusion or offense. She shook her head and dismissed this opinion, telling her softly, "But pay me no mind, it is a good name. And I hope you recover your voice soon."

Nodding in thanks, Hitomi took the book again and the sound of the quill running on paper was heard in the peaceful silence. Handing it back to Lyn, she saw how the Sacaean's lips lifted up into a smile because of what she wrote next:

_**By the way, thanks for the meal. The soup'**__**s really delicious; though simple, it has depth and flavor. To be honest, it reminds me of my own mother's cooking: she always made cooking seem like magic, even with the basic cuisine. **_

"I see… Thank you for liking my cooking. I did as best as I could on it, so I could nurse you back to health. So, Hitomi… I see from your attire that you're a traveler. What brings you to the Sacae Plains? Won't you share your story with me?"

Hitomi pressed a hand to her chest and averted her gaze, looking lost in thought. From her posture, in Lyn's eyes, the other female was reluctant.

_Should I tell her? Well, she saved my life, so I owe her that much, at leas__t. _Her lips were pressed into a thin line, her hidden eyes flashed with indecision. _And I've been traveling around in order to become stronger, but…_

Thoughts had been cut off by a commotion outside, of heavy footsteps and the snapping of twigs. Gripping the hilt of the sword on her side, which Hitomi didn't even notice until now, Lyn had a troubled frown on her face.

"Hm? What was that? It feels there's something amiss." Suspicious, Lyn walked the door with light steps. "I'll go see what's going on. Hitomi, wait here for me."

As Hitomi was going to protest, not like she could since she lacked a voice, Lyn bolted out the door and ran outside. Going into the forest, she peered out from the thicket. She saw two bandits conversing with each other and occasionally making gestures toward the other villages, leering smiles on their faces. Eyes wide with panic, she immediately barged back in, startling the tactician out of her wits.

"Blast… There are bandits here." Hitomi got up to her feet with a jolt, alert on what Lyn just said. The mention of them made her anxious, given what happened two days ago. "I… I have to stop them! They must be planning to attack the other villages and take what they can get… Since I only saw two of them, I think I can handle them on my own."

Lyn looked at Hitomi knowingly, the latter felt her stomach lurch because she knew that look all too well. It was a look of concern and sternness for her, something she only saw two days ago before she went unconscious.

"You'll be safe in here, Hitomi. I can use my sword, so you don't need to worry. Just stay put here until I take them down."

Those words built up something in her, unlocking the memory of what happened. _**She **_urged Hitomi to keep herself safe while _**she**_ fought on her own and, because of that, she hadn't heard any word from _**her **_since then_**. **_Fear and something else bubbling inside her, the older girl shook her head furiously; a cross, stubborn face forming from the way she curled her lips into a thin lipped scowl. She grabbed the leather bound book and quickly jotted down what she thought with the quill; when done, she suddenly thrust the book towards a speechless Lyn, whose eyes quickly scanned over the words to understand.

_**I'm not letting you go out there alone! I can't just sit in here and wait for **__**you, not knowing what'll happen to you! Look, I already know this is dangerous, so please… Let me help you.**_

Regaining her composure from her companion's sudden change of mood, Lyn spoke in a low voice, "What…? You want to help? Well, can you use a weapon?"

Hitomi stiffened at these words, having not thought _**that **_through. Regarding her current condition right now, she clicked her tongue in frustration. The younger woman looked lost in confusion as she saw the tactician pacing up and down with too much on her mind.

_My body__… Under these circumstances too, I can't do anything. _Rubbing her temples, Hitomi was trying to keep her temper under control, pushing self-loathing to the very back of her mind. _Since it's come to this, I have no choice but to guide her through this until I'll be able to somehow recover myself. Knowing __**Mistress**__, if she were here, she'd tell me not to push myself so hard. So… I might as well use my head. _

Once more, she scribbled hastily and showed it to Lyn. Though feeling that there was some sort of hidden meaning to Hitomi's words, Lyn disregarded the sentiment and just read them as it is.

_**I'm normally **__**a tactician – a strategist, if you will. You can say that I… Have some sort of experience in that field. **_

"So, you're a strategist? That's… Quite an odd profession you got there, but…" From the smile Lyn was giving, it told Hitomi—who felt unspeakably relieved—that she won. "Very well, I'll let you come with me. I can use your advice, anyway, on what I should do. This way, I can also protect you in case they try to harm you."

Lyn ran out of the hut again with Hitomi following not too far behind, the latter swearing her physical weakness as she went. From the bushes, they peered out into the waves of grass, on their guard.

"Over there!" Lyn whispered to the other female, pointing out with her free hand that, within the oceans of grass, one bandit was wandering about and planning to head to one of the villages. Hitomi noticed immediately that the brigands were equipped with axes; though the blades were somewhat dull, they were still sharp enough to open flesh.

She stared out into the fields for a while, one hand under her chin to show she was thinking. Luckily, she remembered to keep an extra quill and ink bottle at hand in her robe's pocket in case something like this happened. Leaning against a tree trunk to prop herself up, opening the ink bottle in one hand and setting the quill's tip in the jar with the other, she supported the open book with her arms. Writing hastily, she gave a quick nod of approval and went over to Lyn to let her read.

_**For the first briga**__**nd, we'll have to close the distance eliminate him. We'll go as far as we can and take cover, so they can't see us. Then, when he approaches, we'll go behind him and strike. If he chooses to attack from the side, we have to counterattack, of course. We'll see where we can go from there.**_

"Good idea, Hitomi. Then, all right, we're setting out now."

Counting from one to three with her fingers, Hitomi gave the signal and off they went with caution. Sprinting, words weren't spoken for the time being and the two were scarcely breathing. They snuck behind rocks and whatever they could use for cover, steps as quiet as the occasionally rustling trees around them. At a certain distance, they hid behind a boulder, taking a temporary rest before striking.

Peering out from the right side, Hitomi spotted a bandit nearby, withdrawing her head and looking at Lyn expectedly.

"He is nearby, is he not?" Lyn's voice stated, rather than asked, with a stern but quiet tone. Seeing the strategist nod, she took the blade's handle into her left hand, face somber. "Then, we'll attack when he is not looking."

Peeking from the boulder again, Hitomi saw the bandit's back was turned. Without looking at Lyn, she added up with her fingers again. When the third finger rose, the Sacaean took the opportunity to jump up on top of the stone in a crouching position. Noiselessly unsheathing her blade, her legs sprung up again to take a leap down with the blade held over her head in poise to assault.

Sensing a strong presence, the brigand turned around in an instant, barely blocking the sword that had intentions of killing him. Swinging his axe arm with a shout, he managed to ward the sculpted steel away, the strength of it sending Lyn close to landing on her backside.

"Hah, what's this?" He grinned haughtily, shifting his feet in the proper position. He charged at her, ready to swing his weapon to do harm. "A pretty lass is trying to kill me, I see. How unfortunate, your beauty would've had me sparing your life if you hadn't done that!"

Clenching the handle tightly, Lyn felt her blood boiling with anger at those words, remembering what happened to her tribe months ago. With that in mind and luckily regaining her footing, Lyn lunged at him again with a war cry and ducked from his attack, taking the chance to slash diagonally from the shoulder to the hip. A long, moderately deep cut etched red onto his torso and he cried in rage, swaying his axe downwards. With no time to fully dodge it, Lyn felt an excruciating pain erupt from her leg, barely taking a look to see red.

Hitomi watched in calm calculation and a tinge of fear, wincing as the brute had successfully nicked at one of Lyn's legs. This time, the older female saw her companion stepping back and crouching down slightly, gritting her teeth at the injury. As the brigand was about to take a chance to claim her life, Hitomi caught on how Lyn's blade parried his axe as she held it sideways, never mind the fact she was on the ground.

It had been a while (well, not since _**her**_) since Hitomi saw any fighting. She marveled at Lyn's swordsmanship – while it was needed a little more work, at least she knew where to strike her opponents. She commended her internally on how she struck the enemy; then, sheathed her sword afterwards with her hand never leaving the hilt because it told the strategist that kind particular sword style was useful if you were always on your guard. Somehow, she felt the younger woman had been prepared for this – or could it be she had a natural aptitude with a sword? Either way, the tactician was impressed. She wrote in the book, already having thought of the next strategy as she observed.

It was then her eye caught how Lyn flew up and lodged her weapon in place at her opponent's throat, slitting it deeply. The thug shakily reached a hand to his neck, choking on his own blood and the sudden cut off of his air supply. With strangled gasps and wide eyes, he fell to the ground, unmoving.

Her anger had disappeared momentarily but she still kept a tight grip on her weapon. Panting from the tiring duel with a somewhat triumphant smile on her face, the swordswoman fell back to the ground again, bloodied blade resting at her side. She cringed when she felt the sting of the cut on her leg, feeling Hitomi's gaze on her. Meeting the strategist's face tiredly, she spoke faintly, "Looks like I took it too far, eh? I have need of a vulnerary…"

Approaching her warily, eyes never leaving the cut, Hitomi held out the journal: _**For the next bandit, we'll need to keep moving northwest and give it our best shot. While we're on our way, we should heal your injury before you fight again.**_

"Yes… You're right…" Getting up and cursing under her breath, she wobbled uneasily. Seeing a worried Hitomi about to reach out to her, Lyn shook her head with a faint smile. "It's all right, Hitomi. I can still walk, even though it hurts a bit."

With an unconvinced frown, the tactician dug into her robe's pockets and got out a cloth. Despite Lyn's protests, she knelt down to tie the cloth around her leg to stem any more blood from coming out. Meeting Lyn's surprised and confused expression as she got back up, Hitomi shook her head to prevent her from saying anything.

Scribbling once more, the Sacaean read the following words: _**I did that because I was worried, obviously. If you've kept that wound open, it'll bleed more and it'll get infected. So, at least cover it with that until we can find a place to heal your leg.**_

"Hitomi…" From her tone of voice, Lyn was touched. "Thank you."

While walking west, Hitomi kept looking at the ger from far up ahead, puzzled. Seeing her companion looking contemplative at the hut, Lyn was amused.

"You don't know what a ger is?" The tactician shook her head, making Lyn grin. Being more than happy to explain to her, she laugh softly, "I could tell from the way you're looking at it. It's a type of round hut. Many nomads live in these."

Finally, Lyn saw a suitable spot to stop at, some feet away from the next bandit. When they got there, she suddenly stopped walking, Hitomi almost bumping into her accidentally.

"Hmmm… This'll have to do for now. There are a couple of vulneraries in my satchel. Please get one for me."

The tactician opened the small bag that settled on Lyn's hip. Opening it, she dug around and saw six small, familiar pouches in there. Pulling one out, she closed the pouch and motioned Lyn to sit down on the ground, doing so already.

Following suit of her companion, Lyn sat, extending her leg. Unwrapping the cloth—now darkened red with blood—from her leg and opening up the small sack, Hitomi carefully poured the vulnerary on the wound. She kept a careful eye on it, making sure all of it was used up without having it go to waste, watching the injury close up. A grateful smile formed on Lyn's face as both got up from the grass as she felt energy return to her body.

Without a moment to lose, the two ran head on to the ger, seeing a blond man standing in front of the hut. Not even thinking, Lyn took out her sword instinctively and struck the bandit, who managed to block it with his axe and caught it there.

"Hah, who do you think you are?" He laughed raucously, pushing her back with one blow and sending her to the ground. "I am called Batta the Beast around these parts and you dare to challenge me? You're daft if you want to look at Death in the face so quickly, wench!"

The Sacaean woman made no reply and got up slowly, sword held out in front of her. Her eyes burned with determination, the anger of her tribe's tragedy consuming her in renewed vengeance. Then she closed in again, this time targeting one of his legs without having him being able to evade it. Swearing loudly, Batta lifted his axe and successfully struck Lyn on her sword arm's shoulder, making her cry out in pain as she pulled back before any more damage could be done.

In the wake of this, Hitomi stood frozen on her spot. Anxiety pooled in her stomach as she watched the fight helplessly. She couldn't let someone get hurt on her behalf again, most especially the one who just saved her life two days ago. Lyn looked like she was at her limit with Batta, spotting beads of sweat trickling down from her temples.

"So, it's come to this… It looks like I don't have much of a choice either." Lyn whispered under her breath, flashing a strained smile to the wide-eyed tactician, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "If I fall, Hitomi, I want you to flee. Go on without me."

Fear gripped her heart when she heard those words, similar words spoken to her from the mouth of her mistress two days ago…

oOo

"_Hitomi," her voice was calm and even, sword drawn as she slashed down the bandits that ambushed them with one, effortless stroke. Even in this memory, Hitomi still saw clea__rly the back of her white robe, curtain of long, black hair swishing with quick steps to take down their enemies. "Run. I'll hold these bandits off while you go on ahead of me."_

"_But I can't leave you alone, Mistress!" The tactician protested with fear, worry, and uncertainty etched on her face. "I…! I can't!"_

_Though Hitomi couldn't see her expression from far away, she caught a faint smile on the older woman's lips as she looked over her shoulder to meet her wide eyes._

"_I don't want you to lose your life because of something like this. You know who'll be mad at me if I let you die here. So… It's all right. Just go now. I want you to survive, become stronger, and see the world with your own eyes… Otherwise, I wouldn't have taught you so much."_

"_But…"_

"_Go… My one and only apprentice… This will not be the last time we'll meet, I promise you that much."_

_A lump formed in Hitomi's throat, rendering her to say anything, anything at all. Such words struck a chord in her heart and she knew what the older woman said was right. If she had such faith in her, then Hitomi had to make sure they'll meet again, no matter how long it took._

"_Then… I will pray for your journey, Mistress." With that, she turned and fled, never looking back._

_And at the back of the older woman's mind, blocking off an axe, she, too, thought on a similar note:_

I'll also pray for your journey. And when we cross paths again… I hope you'll become stronger.

oOo

Lyn was ready to take on Batta, despite how tired she looked. Taking an offensive stance with her sword, her steely eyes glared at the brigand in front of her.

"You really are daft." He chuckled lowly, axe descending down to make a fatal mark on his foe. "Then, you will die just like those nomads on that day of winter!"

Seeing red at this remark, anger kindled to full blown rage as the swordswoman deftly dodged his assail. With an infuriated shriek, Lyn went in and forgot the pain of her shoulder, creating a whirlwind of deadly strokes with her blade. Although Batta had parried and evaded the first few, he found that he was no longer able to keep up with Lyn's speed as he received every hit from her sword, each painful than the last.

In a wretched mess of blood and cracked bone, Batta only wore a look of shock on his face when Lyn struck the final blow deeply at his jugular vein. His corpse fell down easily like a house of cards, sending a puff of dirt into the air. Simultaneously, Lyn fell too, her sword buried in the dirt. Her anger disappeared entirely, an unreadable aura around her. Alarmed and afraid of what she had witnessed, Hitomi rushed over to her aid and bent down to her eye level to check up on her.

Hyperventilating, Lyn's eyes went wide with a horrified realization that she just took a life without holding back. Without warning, she turned away from Hitomi to puke violently on the grass, sickened of what happened.

"I… I killed them… I killed the bandits without considering…" Nauseated at this truth, she retched again, hugging her stomach tightly. "I… This can't be…"

Hitomi uncertainly rubbed Lyn's back as a way to comfort her, already aware of why she had reacted like this. No doubt these were Lyn's first kills despite how she wielded the sword well than most people she knew.

The tactician couldn't—and even she had her voice back, wouldn't—say anything, just kept continuing to caress the distraught Lyn's back. They stayed like this for a while in the deafening quiet.

When a sunset colored the sky, Hitomi had finally decided to get up from the ground, looking at Lyn apprehensively. Hearing her movement, Lyn got up gradually, meeting her new friend's eyes with indescribable emotions. The only things Hitomi could make out were sorrow and pain in those bright eyes of hers.

"I'm sorry… Hitomi… That you had to see me like that." She stated in a hushed voice of shame, a forced smile on her lips. "I just… No… When we go back home… I will share my story with you as well."

At this, Hitomi shook her head softly as if telling Lyn she didn't have to force herself to do it. Whatever it was, it had upset her to this degree and she didn't want to push the issue.

"It's not as if I'm forcing myself, if that's what you're thinking. I… I feel that you have the right to know too. After all, you are going to share your story with me, right? And I didn't even let you hear mine first, so…"

Pausing, as if thinking to consider it, Hitomi gave a hint of a nod to her, not looking at her. With journal and quill in hand, she jotted down: _**Then, all right. We can share each other's stories because we should get to know each other better. And… I know why you reacted like that, vomiting and all. I'll explain it when we get back home. Also, we should heal your shoulder soon. But before we depart… We should… Bury the corpses… **_

"Yes, I know… We should at least do that for them, even if they are brigands." Though a little more calmer now, Lyn still felt mixed up with a touch anger but a strange sadness accompanied it, walking past the older female. Sensing the other's bewilderment, without turning around, she spoke quietly, "Come, Hitomi. We need to get the other one's corpse, so we can bury them together."

* * *

Hitomi: Mmm, no humor at all, I know. Well, I did say this fic has multiple genres, so I have to incorporate a sense of seriousness here too. Although I wonder if I did any good here… Well, after all, when you defeat the brigands in Lyn's prologue, all she tells us is what a good job we did and let's go home. That bothered me. Despite knowing Lyn's hate for bandits, she still said something like that in the game as if killing them off was nothing. So, I decided to change it to this.

Well, I hope you enjoyed it, at least. Yes, I know there are a lot of novelizations of FE7 but at least I can give myself credit for being creative here.


	4. Chains of Fate within Time

Hitomi: I'm back. Sorry if last chapter may've been… Unexpected and maybe in a bad way to you guys. I don't know. I didn't want things to be so unrealistically chipper as they were in the game (meaning when you're done killing the bandits in Lyn's prologue and when you seize the ger, all Lyn says is we did a good job and we should head home), so I decided to take this into my own hands and make it a little more… Well, believable. Something tells me I'll be re-editing it again. Blame my perfectionist complex.

Although I am aware that I may not be getting feedback just because this happens to be a Tactician/OC fic, that's fine. While the Tactician is inevitably in the story, aside from the obvious that he/she is in it, I am making sure I'll be developing my tactician carefully. Hard to believe, I know, for people who are just tempted to call out Sue. (Lord knows I've put off my ranting on Mary Sues long enough and people who don't like OCs who don't apply as Sues, so I've a feeling I'll be writing that in the journal since it's been on my mind for far too long.)

But… I hope you enjoy the story as it is. And so, here's Chapter 3. Let's see how this will go.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Escape III** | **Chains of Fate within Time**

「_We are connected together for greater things to come._

_And what's in the past can sometimes come back to you as you make your way._」

* * *

"Here we are! We enter in Bulgar now."

Hitomi blinked, taking in her surroundings curiously. For the biggest town in all of Sacae, it had a lot of tents and yurts. However, this was hardly a surprise as, from what the tactician had seen so far, Sacae was simple and quaint compared to the rest of Elibe.

Passerby were making their way to this or that destination in the town to fulfill their agendas, their leisure pace or running footsteps echoing on the street. The atmosphere was filled with business, concerning people in their stalls voicing out their wares or, if there were customers already visiting, haggling was inevitable. The tactician couldn't keep count on, even when using her hands, how many accents she was hearing all at once. It was as if all of Elibe was gathered up here and she was just here along for the ride.

Steadying her Badon steed, Blitz, to a halt, Hitomi slid off of her saddle and walked the horse to a nearby tree, getting rope out from her bag and tying both ends – one on Blitz, the other wounding itself around the trunk.

While she was in the process of tying the rope, she overheard Lyn's voice, "While you busy yourself keeping your steed in place, I'll look around to see if there's anything worth buying. We are journeying together, after all, so we should make the supplies count."

She nodded in agreement, hearing her comrade's footsteps walking away quietly in a general direction, eventually fading away. Making a good, tight knot in the thick rope, Hitomi patted the horse on its head, earning a soft nicker from it. Looking around, she had decided to go in the other direction, wondering herself on what was in store for the day ahead of them.

oOo

"Would you cut it out already? ! Stop dillydallying with the ladies, so we can get on with our mission!"

"But, my boon companion, we're not even sure where to find Lady Lyndis here! So, might as well kill time and enjoy beautiful company while we're at it, don't you think?"

Shaking his head and rubbing his temples, the redhead made a sound that was between a sigh and a growl – nonetheless, it was out of exasperation and impatience. The green armored cavalier besides him was too busy to notice this, flashing his most charming smile and a wink to a small cluster of young women, who sighed and swooned at this.

"As foolish as ever, Sain… We're not even allowed to waste time like this! All right, let's do it this way: you go in one direction while I go in another. While we're at it, we should supply weapons, healing salves, and food as we're almost out of our portion for this journey. This way, we can cover ground on searching for the Lady Lyndis."

"Hmmm…"

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying, Sain?"

"Oh!" Turning around as the girls had someplace else to be, the dark-haired cavalier turned around to face his best friend, stray bangs side swept. "You were saying something, Kent?"

Hand meeting forehead with a resounding slap, Kent grumbled tersely, trying not to lose his mind, "Just go around town, so you can try to spot Lady Lyndis. Stock up on supplies while we're running out. Now, do you understand? Don't make me repeat myself."

"Ah!" With a playful grin, Sain replied cheerfully, oblivious to his friend's annoyance, "So, that's the plan? All right, I'll be off! I promise I won't let you down, Kent!"

With that, he dashed away to the left, a light spring in his step. Letting out a growl this time, Kent slapped his hand on his forehead again for good measure, muttering something incomprehensible as he went in the other direction.

This day couldn't get any worse for the red armored cavalier. Oh, Elimine forbid, it just couldn't.

oOo

"We got a nicely crafted Bernese sword over here! Step right up!"

"What about this lance? Nice for both distant and close combat and it's forged with high quality steel that hails from Ostia!"

"This bow is sturdy, made with the finest bark in Sacae…"

_Hm, people are trying hard to sell stuff, aren't they? _Hitomi mused, quietly looking at the stalls and keeping an eye out for something—anything—that would be useful. She had to admit, though, what they were selling weren't knock offs – they were selling genuine items here. She would know from the looks of the weapon quality, having been in the battlefield for a few years for both swordplay and tactics.

Lost in thought, she had bumped face first into something cold and hard.

_Owww… _Pulling back and rubbing her now reddening forehead, she met the mildly surprised look of a redhead knight.

She wrote hastily with pen and leather book in hand: _**Ah, sorry about that, sir knight! I wasn't watching where I was going!**_

_She can't talk?__ Well, this is unexpected. _Kent thought, blinking in surprise after having read her words on paper.

"No need to apologize, milady." He reassured her politely, bowing briefly. "Truth be told, I didn't look where I was going either. I'm searching for someone and I need to stock up on goods while I'm at it."

_**Is that so? I see, then. I'm going to travel**__** around… And train myself. I've a companion with me, so she's looking for equipment right now too. **_

"Ah, I see. My boon companion is also out with me." As they conversed, Kent made his way into the stalls and searched through the wares, trying to find needed weapon that would do him good. "That scoundrel better not be fooling around right now…"

_**Hm, that doesn'**__**t sound good. **_With pursed lips upon hearing this, as she bought food from the stall next to the one he was at, the tactician shook her head softly and put the edible items in an average sized bag. _**Reminds me of someone I know, honestly. **_

"Isn't it a headache, to have someone cavorting with the females?"

_**Yes, quite. **_Seeing the two swords and the lance the knight picked out, she nodded in silent commendation. _**You have a good eye for weapons, good sir. Those look durable.**_

"Thank you, milady." A small smile formed on his ever serious face. "Sounds like you have experience with weapons."

_**You can say that, although I am interested in swordplay more than anything else. **_Getting out a couple of gold coins from her robe pocket, she placed them on the counter and plucked a sword from the same booth. Then, she proceeded to tuck the sword at her side, although she had to do this by slipping it under her robe. _**My last sword broke when I was making my travels here, so I thought I'd get a new one.**_

"I wish you good luck on your journey. Now, to find my comrade and—"

"Wait, o beauteous one!"

Both swerved their heads in the direction of the voice, the sound of storming footsteps heading their way. Before either one could register what was going on, a furious Lyn came up and grabbed Hitomi by the wrist with a desperate Sain following at her tail.

"This knight has been bothering me, that was why it took me long to get what we needed." Lyn explained in clipped tones, quite annoyed of the green armored cavalier. "Come now, we're leaving."

As Hitomi, being the smaller of the two, was easily dragged away by the hot-blooded Sacaean, they were heading back to Blitz without looking back at the knights. Untying the rope and equipping him with their stock, Hitomi got on the saddle with Lyn following up behind her. As they rode off south to Bulgar's exit, they found that they were blocked by two other horses also of impeccable breed that were tied up to the nearby tree.

"Excuse me, but your horses are blocking the road!" Lyn called out loudly. Appearing out of nowhere were the cavaliers from earlier, the redheaded one looking apologetic.

"Ah, I'm sorry, milady. I didn't know they would get in the way like this while we went to get provisions."

"It's all right." Lyn smiled kindly at him. "At least you seem honorable enough, unlike your companion there…"

At this, she shot a sharp glare at Sain, who only grinned at her as if unaffected.

"Thank you, milady." As he met Lyn's eyes, Kent felt a jolt of recognition surge through him. "Pardon me, but… You look familiar to me. Have we met before? Because, for some reason, I feel I've seen your face somewhere, but I can't put a finger on where."

"Huh? What did you say?"

"Hey, that's unfair!" Sain whined in indignant protest. "Kent, you didn't lay eyes on her first, I did! So, step aside and give me my well-earned chance!"

"Oh, I see…" Hitomi winced once she heard Lyn's voice darken to a seething anger and it was barely contained. "Is that what this is about? There really is no affability among Lycian knights! If you excuse me… My companion and I will be taking our leave now. Good day to you, _sir _knights."

Giving an apologetic face to a baffled Kent and a death glare to a still complaining Sain, Hitomi whipped the reins of her horse and Blitz broke off into a thundering run.

oOo

"Honestly… Those two!" When they had made their exit, Lyn was still livid with clenched fists and a red, angry face. "Where do they get the nerve to bother a lady like that? !"

_**Well, I suppose it can't be helped. **_Hitomi wrote this, a quiet sigh escaping from her lips. _**Some knights are like that, I know this from experience. However, there are still honorable knights.**_

The tactician thought back to her brief meeting with Kent at Bulgar, hardly listening to what Lyn said next. Yes, no knight would look so baffled at Lyn's reaction like that. Clearly, from her neutral perspective, there was a misunderstanding between him and Lyn earlier. And he didn't really seem like the scoundrel unlike the other one – he really was a knight that had his respect and duty in place.

A tight feeling of awareness squeezed her inside painfully and Hitomi merely grunted. She hadn't forgotten that Lyn mentioned those two hailed from Lycia and such a fact made her broke out in cold sweat.

_Not good. _A silent "tsk" escaped from her lips. Fate was definitely not working in her favor; the insignia both males bore on their armor was an all-too-familiar one, one that she had seen countless times back home. _Those two are from Caelin, I've no doubts about that. Caelin has been one of our close allies for years now and I am most certain that Lord Hausen knows what happened back home. Now, I've to keep a low profile around them and everyone else who may have connections with royal families who are our allies. Since it's come to this…_

_I may have to use __**that name **__again…_

"Hitomi?" She snapped out of her reverie, turning around to meet a concerned Lyn. "What's wrong? You've stopped writing. Is everything well?"

The older woman averted her gaze, turning back to check their surroundings for a little while longer. Then, without even bothering to directly answer Lyn's questions, she wrote in her book, albeit tentatively.

_**Lyn… From now on, if we are to gain allies on this journey… I need you to call me by a different name. You can still call me Hitomi, but only if we're alone. I… You understand, do you not, why I'm suddenly bringing this up?**_

"Ah? Oh! Yes… Of course, Hitomi." The Sacaean recalled Hitomi's short story the night before after taking out the bandits. Lyn knew the other female made it a point that she deliberately ran away from home without sending word, although she didn't go into detail why. She only said that she wanted to keep honing her skills in tactics, but something in Lyn's conscience played with the idea that that wasn't the only reason why Hitomi was doing this. It wasn't her business to pry, though; when the tactician was ready to say her true intentions, she would in due time. "If you're that worried of being found out, then we'll need a different name for you. Do you… Already have one in mind?"

_**Well… **_Traces of hesitation were still in her words, the quill quivered in Hitomi's hand. Then, seemingly out of force of will, her hand steadied the writing instrument and continued carving black letters into the parchment. _**I do have one.**_

"Go ahead."

_**Hmmm… Then, I**__** want to be called… Lenore…**_

Footsteps interrupted the conversation and both looked up to see a burly man holding an axe.

Grinning wickedly, he sneered, "Finally found you! You, lass, the name's Lyndis, ain't it?"

Hitomi felt Lyn stiffen behind her.

"What name did you call me?" The sound of metal could be heard, cutting through the silence. The tactician didn't need to look, she already knew it meant Lyn had drawn out her sword from its sheath. Sliding off the horse, positioned in a fighting stance, Lyn glared at the man, asking warily, "Who are you and what is your business with me?"

"Nothing that's worth worrying your pretty head about, girlie. What a pity, having been hired to kill a beautiful lass like yourself." The man, Zugu, almost looked sympathetic towards the two. Almost. With a feral smirk, he barked out, "Boys, time to come out and play!"

Both females cursed under their breaths, finding themselves surrounded by five bandits. The tactician grimaced, kicking herself mentally on not foreseeing these circumstances.

_This is a lot more than we can handle. I'm still in no condition to move. Lyn… Lyn's speed is her advantage, but her strength needs more work. _Clenching her fists on her lap, Hitomi's eyes hardened, noting Lyn's serious face and the tight grip on her blade. _We don't have any choice, though; if it's like this, so be it._

"There they are!" An unfamiliar voice bellowed into the open, making all of them look around wildly in confusion. Everything happened so fast, two bandits found themselves dead and bleeding profusely on the ground in a flash. Turning around, the two females met with a recognizable sight.

"We'll handle this!" Kent declared seriously, a sword resting knowingly in his hand.

"Stand back, we can't let you two ladies fight!" Sain agreed, brandishing, to Hitomi's dissatisfaction, a lance. "Leave it to us men to strike a blow in your name! These fools will pay with their lives, pitting large numbers against you angels…"

"No!" Lyn was adamant, feet planted firmly to the ground as she waved her sword in emphasis. "I will not let you two interfere with this! This is my fight, so stay out of it!"

_**Let them go.**_

Whirling around, Lyn was flabbergasted at what the tactician suggested.

"What, H— Lenore? But…!"

_**Let them go with you. We were outnumbered to begin with and there was no way you would**__**'ve withstand it for long. **_A cool expression from the older woman bore into Lyn, which made her protests die down. _**Remember what happened in yesterday's battle. You almost lost your life and there were only two bandits that time. What do you think would happen if I had let you go on with five brigands now? Surely, you would've worn yourself out and someone would've taken advantage of your exhaustion, giving them an easy kill.**_

"That's…"

_**And you haven't exactly recovered from your shoulder wound. It may've closed up, but it's still painful there, isn't it?**_

Consciously, Lyn felt a dull throb of pain in her right shoulder, making her cringe slightly. She had completely forgotten about that until Hitomi mentioned it.

"…All right." Lyn relented, turning away slowly, feeling a little incensed towards the tactician. "But as long as we lead first, I'll allow it."

_Ah, she's mad… _The strategist sighed again, giving her temples a light rub to steady her temper. _Never mind; she's still a young girl, that's why she's like this. I just wanted to keep her safe._

_**We will properly introduce ourselves later. **_Hitomi flashed this message towards the two cavaliers, who nodded at this. She gave a curt nod to all three of them at the next message. _**But it's time to fight first and make nice ties later. Let's go!**_

And it began. As she had not anticipated this, Hitomi had not written a battle plan. All was not lost, though, as she was able to get her message across to the three to use the woods to their advantage, hands waving in the direction of the forests as she kept a steady control of Blitz. However, her irritation grew towards Sain on more than one occasion.

She threw a small rock at his head the first time when she saw he was still wielding the lance.

Strike one.

"Ow!" Rubbing the back of his head, Sain's pain filled eyes met with the somber glare of the tactician's. "What's wrong, precious Lady Lenore? Is something amiss?"

"Don't you see where she's glaring at?" With a light groan to his companion, barely dodging the nearby brigand's axe, Kent struck the shoulder of the enemy with profound ease with his sword. "She's mad that you're still using a lance and not a sword."

"Is that so? But, what's the problem? The lance is considered manlier than any ruddy sword and I can wield it well!"

"That doesn't matter, you oaf, and you're bragging emptily again. Lady Lenore has studied tactics for quite some time and she knows that swords have an advantage over axes."

"Ah… Is that so…?"

"You're lucky that I even bought a spare blade with me just in case because I knew you were going to fool around with the ladies again and forget getting yourself a proper weapon." Kent reprimanded sharply, Sain making a face whenever he was scolded like this. "So, use that."

"Really?" Of course, the green cavalier was more than happy to take the second sword out of his companion's hand. Fastening the lance onto his back, he switched the sword back and forth in both of his hands, testing the weight of it. "All right, I'll make use of this! Many thanks to you, Kent!"

Sain rode off to the direction of the second bandit that Lyn was battling with. She was putting up a good fight, from what Hitomi saw in the distance. She watched as the nimble girl deftly ducked from an axe stroke, making it aim at a tree branch instead and the weapon remained lodged there as her sword slashed diagonally from the owner's shoulder to hip.

"Don't mind him, Lady Lenore." Turning around at the sound of Kent's voice, Hitomi watched him pull back from the enemy's axe and gave him a clean stab to the heart. When he was done, he regarded her with serious, sincere eyes. "Sain may be a scoundrel, but his heart's in the right place."

_**That better be true, Kent. **_She scowled as she scribbled this in her journal, feeling a headache starting to grow. _**Because I already feel my patience wearing thin.**_

He chuckled wryly with, "Yes, I know that too well. It'll take you time to get used to it, I suppose."

_**This is going to be a long day…**_

Both heard yelling from where Lyn and Sain were left alone together. Alarmed, both rode there together, only to find the bandit dead on the floor when they arrived.

"What happened here?" Kent demanded urgently, a taut frown on his face. Likewise, Hitomi gave Lyn and Sain a concerned gaze.

"Ah, nothing serious." Lyn reassured them, waving a hand hurriedly as she smiled a little. It looked like she was in a better mood than before, Hitomi noticed. "Sain here had a little trouble with the enemy while helping me. The one you heard yelling earlier was him because, well, he tried to strike the bandit with the blade, but he missed."

Sain laughed nervously, feeling him shrinking at the scrutiny of his comrades as he explained himself, "Yes, I missed. I was so busy attacking him that I didn't see the woods, which must've caused my blunder…"

Hitting his forehead with his hand for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day, Kent growled out his words, "What did I tell you for always minding your surroundings? ! If you're not careful, you'll lose your life one of these days!"

"Let it go, Kent!" For the first time, Sain let loose his own anger, annoyed of the lecturing he had received for today. "I already understand what I'm doing, so stop acting like…!"

He had been cut off with a second rock to his head (strike two). He stopped, chastised, unable to look up as he felt Hitomi's glower on him again. At least he wasn't alone this time for she was also giving this expression to Kent too, who immediately closed his mouth upon seeing the look.

_**Enough, **_the tactician wrote with a furious scrawl, gritting her teeth and seething. Lyn backed away a little from her companion, feeling a dangerous aura around her. _**As the tactician of this group, I will not have progress being slowed down. These men are after Lyn's blood and I refuse to have mistakes here that'll cost us our very lives! Understand?**_

All three nodded cautiously, taking this outburst in their own way. Sain was cowering, no doubt, while Kent was unfazed but understanding. Lyn was apprehensive to go near Hitomi now, what with being like this and all.

_**And Sain?**_

"Yes, Lady Lenore?" A sudden but hopeful look formed on the green cavalier's face, flashing a dazzling smile to the not amused Hitomi. "What do you wish of your loyal servant, Sain? I'll do anything you say!"

Kent only rolled his eyes while Lyn grinned slightly. Earlier in Bulgar, she had to put up with his behavior, so she wanted to see how the tactician would handle it. Besides, it would be nice to placate her mood.

For the third time that day, Hitomi threw a small rock squarely at the cavalier's forehead.

Strike three.

"Ow! What—"

_**You're injured and I can't believe you haven't noticed. **_She noted pointedly, spotting red on his green armor. _**Have Lyn give you a vulnerary to heal yourself. **_

"She's right, you haven't healed yourself. Don't be so reckless next time." Lyn pointed out, frowning a little and handing him the familiar bag of medicine. Sain was overjoyed to receive a healing salve from her, pouring it over his injury. Instantly, as expected, the wound closed up.

"Ah, I feel much better right now." He smiled captivatingly at the two females. "You two have my thanks for giving me the healing power of your love."

_**You're welcome, but… Oh, stop it! **_Hitomi snapped back at this, annoyed and flustered, turning away hastily before anyone could see her face flush red. _**Sain, if you use any more flowery language on me today, I am going to wring your neck when this is all over! Honestly, you've been giving me a headache with it!**_

This was much to the amusement of Lyn, letting a wide grin escape, and the ever unflappable Kent who was disguising his chuckle as a loud cough.

The day went on as the three fighters outnumbered the brigand at the bridge, finally confronting the lone Zugu. Hitomi didn't care who killed him off, as long as they would stop going after Lyn. In the end, Kent gave the final blow, much to the objections of Sain – but only because he wanted to look like the hero.

oOo

That night, the four had gone to a tavern a ways down the road. Although Hitomi felt weary from the day's events, and thus refusing to drink while she was at it, she was still curious about the knights' story and what they had to do with Lyn. It was quiet inside the inn, very few people in residence of the rooms.

"As we have stated earlier," Kent started slowly, taking a small sip of his drink, regarding everyone at the table. "I am Kent and my companion is Sain. We've traveled all the way here because we were assigned a mission to look for someone named Lyndis."

"Lord Hausen had a daughter named Madelyn sixteen years ago. She had eloped with a nomadic prince named Hassar. Because of this, our lord was enraged and declared disownment, stating that he never had a daughter." Sain elaborated more on detail, gulping down his liquor with a generous amount. At the mention of Hassar and Madelyn, Lyn's eyes widened with recognition. Hitomi didn't notice this, she was intentionally listening to the story. "Then, one day, he received a letter and it said that Lady Madelyn was living happily in the Sacae plains with her husband and their daughter, Lyndis."

"Lyndis was the name of the marquess's late wife. This made him extremely happy and he was relieved to hear his daughter living well. In the letter, he was invited to visit the plains once. However…" A grave look flickered on Kent's face, putting his glass down after taking a swig of his beverage. "When we arrived in Bulgar, people told us that Lady Madelyn and Lord Hassar were long dead. So, we received the letter too late."

"There was still hope, however." Sain continued gently, a finger of one hand circling the rim of his now empty mug. "We heard that the daughter still lives, surviving alone on the plains. That's why we're here."

"Lady Lyndis… The resemblance to your late mother is astounding, but I also see traces of your father in you. While I had not met Lady Madelyn personally, I had seen her portraits all over Caelin's castle." Kent murmured quietly, giving Lyn a considerably soft expression, a stark contrast to his ever usual, tightlipped expression. "So… I knew you were the one we, and Lord Hausen, have been looking for all of this time."

Lyn let the males' tale sunk into her head. Little did she know was that, as the time passed slowly, tears trickled out from her eyes.

"I never thought I would hear that name again…" Lyn whispered with a trace of shaking emotion, wiping her eyes with an arm. New tears still slid down easily on her cheeks when she did this. "Everyone in the Lorca tribe called me Lyn, but my parents would call me Lyndis when it was the three of us."

The knights fell silent out of consideration, watching their newly revealed liege break down. She had been alone for so long, being the last of her tribe and taking care of herself. Hitomi only looked away from the sight, understanding her companion's feelings completely. The last time she had seen the Sacaean swordswoman cry was just yesterday, when she poured out her tale of woe on how all of the Lorca tribe had died in the dead of winter half a year back.

After she had calmed down (though it took time), Lyn looked bright eyed again, even though her eyes and face were flushed. A thought suddenly occurred to her as she slapped her palm flat on the table, much to the surprise of everyone else.

"That man had called me Lyndis too!"

"What?" Kent murmured in thought, not expecting this. "How—"

"Lundgren." An uncharacteristic growl escaped from the pocket of Sain's throat, his usually cheerful face dark with a startling grimness.

"Who's he?"

"Lord Lundgren is the brother of your grandfather; therefore, that makes him your great uncle." Kent answered calmly, his expression severe, drumming his fingers impatiently on the table. "Because Lord Hausen disowned your mother, Lord Lundgren was named heir of the throne. But now that you're alive, he sees you no more than an obstacle in the way of the inheritance of Caelin."

"What? !" Indignantly, Lyn cried out, "But I've no interest in taking the throne…!"

"Unfortunately, he doesn't know that. Not that he'll believe it, anyway, even if he was aware of that." Sain chuckled bitterly, shaking his head lightly. With a surprising seriousness, he added with finality, "So, he'll do everything in his disposal to make sure you won't become heir."

oOo

"So, it's like this…" Lyn said softly, pacing constantly on the floor of the room Hitomi and her were sharing for the night. The former was sitting on the window sill, looking lost in thought. "This is so sudden that it's making my head hurt… But, I do want to see my grandfather…"

She turned to the tactician, who was gazing out the window.

"Hitomi," at this, the older woman looked at her questioningly, asking her silently to speak out her thoughts. "This changes our plans. And from what Kent and Sain said, it sounds dangerous. I know we had a different objective, but… Is this okay?"

_If we'll be going to Caelin… That'll mean that we'll need to go through home too because that's the way. _Hitomi was swearing strings of curses in her head, both hands clenching in fists. Now, she had to debate with her thoughts on what options were left for her for this trip. _This wasn't what I intended at all. I didn't plan to go back home until I made sure I accomplished everything I wanted to do. What do I do now…?_

_Ah, but it's not like they know what I look like now._ Another thought butted in, kicking the negative voice out of the way._ Surely, they must be naïve enough to think that I would maintain the same appearance when I ran away from home. Of course not, that'll be like hiding a very rare treasure in a poor place. Not to mention __**he **__doesn't know what I look like after all of this time since our arrangement was set. So, just stay calm and don't act suspicious that'll give yourself away. _

_Besides… Lyn is the true heir of Caelin. So, surely, she should go there and claim the throne, if only to just live with her grandfather, Lord Hausen._

"Hitomi?"

Having made her mind up, serenely taking out her journal and pen, the tactician wrote with ease: _**Since this is the only opportunity to see your only family left… I'll go with you. Besides, I'll need more practice in my tactics since people expect a lot of experience in a professional. And since I've been in tactics for years, this is just nothing more than something else to accomplish in this profession. Just always remember to call me Lenore when we're around other people.**_

Ecstatic at this answer, the blade lord went to the other side of the room and gave Hitomi a big, unexpected hug with a rush of emotions.

"Oh, thank you…" Lyn murmured over and over again in a warm, grateful voice, new tears welling up in her eyes. "Thank you so much… It really means the world to me to have you by my side. I can say that you're truly my friend that's worth my trust!"

_No, I'm not. _Hitomi's negative thoughts gave way with a vengeance, arms limp at her sides (she wasn't expecting the hug, anyway). With a sad smile, bangs covering her black eyes, the older woman wanted to laugh bitterly at her employer's words. _If I was really a friend as you say, I wouldn't have to act so cautious, so professional, when it comes to your fighting. Don't trust me… Lyn…_

_I am not worth your trust and I cannot say we're friends either because I'm only doing what I'm supposed to do. That's the difference between a normal person and a tactician. You're too good for me, Lyn, more than you'll ever know._

A flicker of a memory came into her mind's eye, a glimpse of a familiarly boyish smile standing out. Closing her eyes, basking in the warmth of Lyn's body, Hitomi felt her heart clench painfully.

_Back to haunt me__ again, are you? It's been a long time too. That's why I didn't want to use the name Lenore unless I absolutely had to. But… I can't help but want to hear it again, even if it's meant for your use alone…_

_Because… You're the one who gave this name to me in the first place…_

* * *

Hitomi: And so, I end it there. I didn't even look at the game script this time! *cheers* Took me quite a while to finish, as I had writer's block (and I've been sick with intestinal flu since April 3rd, though I am slowly recovering), but I'm glad I've accomplished this~

…The only thing I am worried about is the whole out-of-character business. *headdesks* And, as usual, I'm worried about my writing. XD But hey, if I have to have creative license in this novelization of FE7, I have to be able to take risks! *shakes fist*

Now, to think how the next chapter will go~ Hope you guys enjoyed this!


	5. A Compass of Choices

Hitomi: And so, this is me writing another chapter of Irony. And from what it looks like, it's longer than my other chapters! I tried to be as careful as possible when writing this since I'm trying to develop the characters here. The pasts of some characters, including the tactician, are things I want to slowly develop as well.

The caption for this chapter… O.o For some reason, Canon in D popped into mind. Weird, huh? I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because of me wanting slow character and relationship development.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Escape IV** | **A Compass of Choices**

「_Everything changes, but gradually stays the same at once…_

_What we've done and what we've gone through back then is still a part of us today._

_Who we were in the past is still there now, but with many changes in between._

_It is up to you on whether to live in the light or be swallowed up by the darkness…_」

* * *

"Took long enough to get over here." Keiya muttered tiredly, rubbing his eyes as he slid off his saddle. It couldn't be helped that he had to let out a loud yawn due to lack of sleep. "This is as far as we go, Rai."

"Are you sure, Kei?" The myrmidon looked around his surroundings uncertainly. Judging from how far they've gone, he was pretty sure they were at the Bern-Sacae border now. "Wouldn't it be best to go a little further? The princess is fast on her feet as she never stays in a spot for too long, just letting you know."

"Rai, we've been travelling non-stop for the past few days straight with little to no rest." The Chancellor of Badon pointed out in a grumpy, blunt fashion, giving his companion a deadpanned glare. "Our horses have been pushed to their limits, so we should give them rest. It's not like we've made constant stops, anyway, so we don't have any problem with money. Now, be reasonable here for, unlike some of us, we don't have your stamina, Mr. Swordsmaster."

"And now, you know why I call you weak for deciding to wield magic instead of taking up a weapon. You don't have any meat on your bones." The male Sacaean sighed in woe at this, all the while keeping a wary eye of the scenery around them, much to Keiya's irritation. The latter of the two felt wide awake now with a noticeable scowl on his face, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Grrr, shut up and take that back! I'll have you know that it's not easy taking up the magical arts! Do you even have the slightest idea how heavy tomes are? !"

"Oh, I'm sure it isn't easy since it does take up a lot of concentration and mental focus. After all, we do have Lord Pent as the Mage General in Etruria and he's one of the most respected figures in this day and age." Rai met his best friend's eyes with an unreadable but self-assured look. "However, while it's true that your tomes are as heavy as they look thick, I just don't see them besting a weapon. There's no point denying that those who wield magic have low physical defense."

"While that may be true, you shouldn't be so biased," a snort escaped from Keiya as he had a small but confident smirk on his face. "Don't forget that most warriors are defenseless against magic because of low resistance. The only people who can match up to the might of magic are other magic users and, when it comes to the fighting classes, Pegasus knights."

"Bah," Knowing that there was no use arguing with his liege, Rai only grunted and shook his head in defeat. "You and your constant studying of tactics, honestly."

"Hey, at least tactics helps me consider the terrain when I'm in combat and it hasn't done me any harm so far, as you already know."

"True, but don't get cocky about it, though. Your fiancée would, no doubt, kill you good with just a glare." The myrmidon could only grin fondly on the memories of seeing her temper very often, which he had deliberately left out for Keiya to discover on his own. "She takes her tactics seriously as much as she does with her swordplay and she has been that way for years."

Well, hearing this got Keiya intrigued about his fiancée, both eyebrows raised and his eyes round with surprise and curiosity.

"Hey, Rai?"

"Yeah?"

"What is… My fiancée really like, anyway? Because this is something about her I didn't know, to be honest."

Stopping in mid-step, Rai looked at him, not showing his own surprise when hearing this.

"She never told you in the letters you guys have been writing to one another?"

"Well, she has. It's just that she vaguely mentions it and she never delves into detail about it. It's like she… She really doesn't want to talk about it."

"Mmm, I understand now." Rai nodded knowingly, bright eyes looking contemplative at this. It didn't take him long at all to imagine the princess's flustered, timid expression when it came to the subject of tactics. Very often when he visited her to deliver Keiya's letters (or when he had his days off from bodyguard duty), Rai observed that the princess wouldn't discuss strategy openly when she was around nobles or royalty. "Probably, she just didn't want to appear unladylike since it's not like a woman, let alone a princess, to have any interest in tactics because it involves war. Not that there's anything wrong with her because she may be boyish, but she still carries herself as a princess when she needs to."

"Ah, is that so… Well, she has nothing to be ashamed of!" Keiya exclaimed indignantly with a hard-eyed look. This was much to Rai's astonishment, who showed it with both eyebrows raised. It was then, moments after, he caught something on his liege's face that he didn't see often – a proud grin. "If she thought I was going to judge her because of those things, then she's wrong. I actually praise her for pursuing tactics. It shows that she's trying to use her mind instead of stuffing it with fashion and gossip. As for swordplay… There should be more women in the rich classes fighting. Just look at Lord Pent's wife, Lady Louise! And there's Lady Kate to consider too. If my fiancée wants to prove herself useful in the sword arts, then I'll let her do it if she so desires."

As they made their way around the woods, keeping their horses in tow, Keiya and Rai kept in silence in their own thoughts. Now that Keiya knew a little more about his fiancée, a door opened up to him. Although the two haven't met to this day, he could only imagine how she was like. As far as impressions go, when it came to getting these details from his bodyguard, Keiya saw her as a strong woman.

From the way Rai saw things, it looked like he got his lord to open up a little more on the missing princess. Although there were still a lot of details he left out, he only wondered what Keiya thought about her now. At least that smile he gave earlier was a very obvious clue that he appreciated his fiancée wasn't one of those nobles who were enamored with their riches, appearances, and other shallow things.

When they finally made their way out, they ended up walking into a meadow. Deciding to rest there before moving again in an hour or two, the two kept their comfortable silence and watched the clouds in the sky. The day was bright and beautiful, albeit a little hot because of summer weather. As a light breeze brushed through, shaking the trees and letting the grass tickle underneath the males, it was Keiya who decided to speak up first.

"Rai?"

"What is it, Lord Kei?"

"Would you… Tell me more about my fiancée from time to time? We've known each other for a few years, exchanging letters, but you've actually seen her. You've actually talked to her. So, you know how she's really like."

Rai looked to be considering his lord's request, a light smirk on his face.

"What? Has my liege actually fallen in love with the princess?"

"No! That's not it, you oaf, and you know it!" Keiya huffed, giving his best friend a little glare. "I just want to find out more about her because… Well, since she's the first one to ever reject me…"

"Mm?"

Keiya's lips curved into a charming grin, which Rai usually saw when he was wooing women. At this, the myrmidon groaned in agony, knowing what was going to be said next.

"I just find her… Interesting."

Well, this was something Rai didn't see coming. Sure, his best friend had a lot to say about women, but the myrmidon never heard him call one interesting.

"Are you… Serious?" He asked reluctantly, with slightly wide eyes and cocking an eyebrow to show his confusion. Well, this was Rai's version of his mouth dropping open as far as his facial expressions were concerned. Of course, there was no denying he was flabbergasted about this. "I thought your pride was broken because she didn't fall under your charms. So, I figured you'd be mad at her about it."

"Oh no, was that what you were thinking?" Laughter escaped from the Chancellor of Badon, finding the mere thought of hating women for rejection absurd. "Rai, that's cruel of you to say! You know I can never hate a woman, even if this one happens to be engaged to me and not falling under my spell."

_Oh look, Prince Charming is back to his foolish self. _Rai mused sarcastically, shaking his head in disbelief. _Why did I ever think he was serious? Wait, we're talking about the Chancellor of Badon, intent to strike the hearts of women!_

"So, I gave into chasing my fiancée because it's new for me… Remember that it's usually women chasing after me."

_Yep, he's back into airheaded prince mode.__ What did I do to get stuck with this idiot again? _Hand on his forehead, the myrmidon let out a loud sigh, annoyance now apparent. Whether Keiya heard it or disregarded it, nobody would ever know since he kept on talking as if he had no interruption.

"But since I'm the one taking the lead this time… I thought that this would be fun."

"Well, then…" Hearing that, Keiya became rigid, giving his best friend a very wary look. When Rai would say those words, it usually meant he was going to challenge his lord with something. "If that's the case… Why don't we make a little wager to keep things interesting?"

Before he became Chancellor of Badon, if there was something when it came to gambles, Keiya knew he had to choose them carefully. This was true not only in something as harmless as a bet, but in tactics and combat as well.

"_Lad, if there be something worth learning, out of this here seadog's mouth is a piece of advice for ye: never pick fights that ye will ne'er win in." _The words of former First Man, now Captain, Fargus of the Davros called within the back of the mage's mind from a sea of nostalgia.

"What kind of wager are we talking about here?" These words popped out of Keiya's mouth easily as he kept calm about this. Somehow, he felt a tingling anticipation from his toes to all the way up to his head. Whatever Rai was going to dare him with, it wouldn't be difficult… Right?

"One that involves the princess and how you've taken a keen interest in her, which tells me there's something amiss with my lord." Giving away a wolfish grin, Rai met the other's eyes seriously. "So, if you want to know what I'm proposing here, let me be as honest as possible: I'm throwing in five hundred gold the princess will have you fall for her first before you can woo her."

"You… You must be daft." The Chancellor of Badon finally chuckled softly, a strange glint in his eye. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to, Rai? You're talking to a tactician who led an assault on Badon for its independence and this is me we're talking about when it comes to women. You do know what they call me, right?"

Ah yes, Rai knew and he knew all too well. How could he ever forget that his best friend earned the name, The Natural Playboy, around Badon and probably the whole of Elibe every time he visited conferences held by the Lycian League?

"And why in the name of all that is decent did they give you that name again?" Rai grumbled with a sigh in his voice, reminiscing on how the Chancellor of Badon had flirted with the ladies in court occasionally.

With a smile that would surely melt the ladies' hearts, Keiya declared in a suave voice, "Well, it's obvious why! My peerless intellect, stature, and grace cannot help but attract the finest of ladies!"

Rai chose to mutter darkly under his breath, "…Let us try to remember that it was the menfolk and the ladies' mothers who called you that in disdain…"

"Did you say something?"

"Tis of no consequence. Now, are you going to take the bet or not?" Another smirk made its way back on Rai's face, this time filled with confidence… Was that mockery Keiya saw as well? Oh no, he wasn't going to get away with that, bodyguard or not, best friend or not! "Surely, my lord cannot be scared. …Unless, he is and that's why he's been dillydallying from the subject."

"I am not scared of something like this!" Keiya snapped back heatedly, squarely meeting the myrmidon's taunting expression with steely eyes. "Fine! I accept your wager and I'll even double it to one thousand gold! And I assure you, I'll woo my fiancée first! Because there's no changing the fact she's still a woman and you know how easily they fall for a man if he fits their preferences. Just wait, Rai, I will make her fall for me."

"Think what you want…" Rai whispered softly to himself as he turned his back to the other male. In the background, Keiya, being worked up by this, was already formulating plans in his head. As the swordsman went to get an apple from a satchel one of the horses was carrying, he took a bite of the fruit with his strong teeth and mused on, "However, I already know the princess will have you fall for her first because she is not the type to be so easily wooed. Little do you know, she has a name of her own when it comes to courtship and I think you may've heard it before in passing… They call her the Queen of Broken Hearts."

oOo

_Owww… Damn it, this wasn't what I was anticipating for! _Hitomi fussed, tripping and muttering strings of muted curses under her breath as she picked herself up and kept running up the hill. While Sain and Kent were busy breaking down that particularly weak wall at the side of the Mani Katti's shrine, Lyn wasn't too far behind her with her sword drawn out.

Currently, Hitomi and Lyn were going through the hills that would lead to the shrine's entrance, but it was not an easy task. Because Blitz couldn't go up the steep terrain, the two women had no choice but to go on foot.

One more bandit outside the shrine, while the other two had been killed by the knights, was quickly making his way to them. The tactician had no time to deal with this and sped past him, deftly dodging his axe's strike. While he was distracted from this, even contemplating on whether to follow her or not, Lyn took this as an opportunity by slashing at his chest with a clean, horizontal cut. Now having a fight on his hands, he took a swing of his axe downwards to the younger girl, giving her a nice slice of red on her arm. Not losing momentum, though swearing in what sounded like her tribal language, Lyn began twirling her body with her blade gripped in both hands. Before he had the chance to blink, Lyn somehow got behind him and swung an uppercut with all of her strength as a counterattack, leaving a deep gash on the brigand's back. Out of good measure, without giving him a chance to retaliate, she had decapitated him.

"Are you okay, Hitomi?" The Sacaean asked quietly, managing to catch up to the tactician just in time to see her trip again from her walk up the fourth mound they've encountered. Wiping blood from her nose, too annoyed or too distracted to write, Hitomi gave nothing but a curt nod. Turning to look at her, she raised an eyebrow and looked intently at the large cut on Lyn's arm as if to tell her honestly: _"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself? You do have a large wound on your arm, you know." _Seeing that the older woman was staring at the cut, Lyn took out a vulnerary and poured it over the wound, letting it heal. With a little smile, she said brightly, "See? Nothing to worry about, Hitomi, I've got it under control."

Nodding again (this time in approval), the tactician was determined to get over this blasted hill, no matter what. Marching up with her body – specifically, her legs – complaining about the burning pain, she took no notice. There was no way she was going to slip again—

Cue falling again, face first. Well, at least she was further up the hill than she was the previous two times when Lyn had been fighting the bandit. Lyn had to wince; at the same time, for some odd reason, she was also trying not to laugh. Maybe it's because she never saw the tactician like this before.

_What the Hell? ! _Hitomi lamented angrily, pushing herself up with her hands and standing, keeping her balance. She gritted her teeth in annoyance. _Stupid hills, I'm not letting you make trouble for me! Don't waste my time!_

Stomping hard on the ground, once again, she walked upwards with every ounce of her strength, slowly going to the top. Lyn was cautiously five steps behind her, not wanting to make her angry in case. When they had finally reached the top, they saw the entrance of the shrine just a little bit further when you turned to the left.

"Come on, it's just right over there. I'm pretty sure there are more bandits up ahead, though Kent and Sain should be inside by now to take care of them." Lyn told her, making her way down the hill's slope. Seeing that the tactician was frowning, even glaring at the ground, the younger woman couldn't help but tease her, "Don't worry, the hills have nothing against you this time. You are walking down to the bottom instead of climbing up to the top now."

Giving her a sharp glare, Hitomi stalked closer to the swordswoman. What the tactician was planning now, Lyn had no idea, but her instincts were telling her to run.

_Oh dear, _Lyn thought nervously as she ran away from the storming female. Somewhere deep down, she also felt mirth about this situation. _I made her mad, but I can't help but think this is funny!_

Mixed feelings were in her while she kept up her quick strides, unable to contain her laughter any longer as they came out in peals. The anxiety, the amusement, and an odd liberation were slowly making their way into Lyn's heart. When was the last time she felt something like those? Did the slaughter of her tribe remove her of all emotions except for immense sorrow and painful loneliness? It always felt like, since she started this journey with Hitomi, things were changing for Lyn – all of it for the better, it seems.

Hitomi, while still feeling grouchy about Lyn's teasing, was also finding this little pursuit humorous. They were in the middle of battle – but here she was, chasing Lyn like they were in a game of tag. It was strange–almost foreign–to be like this, especially given the required seriousness these circumstances needed, but the tactician felt free. Hearing Lyn laughing, despite the possible fear she had of the tactician's wrath, made Hitomi feel bizarrely euphoric. For the first time in years, she felt like she could take on the world. She hadn't felt this way for so long, not since _that_—

She froze in mid-step, the feelings deflated and gone and her insides growing cold as she was reminded of whom she was and why she ran away from home, of why she had decided to take her tactical duties ever the more seriously. She wasn't a child anymore and she could never go back to who she once was. Thinking of it made her clench a loose fist in her pocket, nails digging deep into her palm with the intent of drawing out blood. Her face that almost broke out into a smile slipped back into its solemn, indifferent expression. Her hurried steps now slowed into a light sprint, but still fast enough with the intention of getting to the temple as soon as possible, chastising herself on the way of how childish she was just a moment ago.

Sensing a change of mood in the air, Lyn stopped and look over her shoulder hesitantly, realizing Hitomi was taking time with her pace now. What caught her eye was how the tactician was back to looking serious as usual and the Sacaean only questioned what made her companion revert back to this persona again. She felt even a little disappointed of being unable to see other emotions from the older woman than this…

Deliberately ignoring Lyn's confused, concerned look once she caught up, Hitomi nonchalantly held her open journal up and scribbled with her quill: _**We have no time to waste. We should keep our priorities in order. As far as I'm assessing how many more we have to deal with… Plus that Glass guy, we probably don't have many brigands to take down; maybe about two or three at the most.**_

"Only that much left to take down?" Lyn spoke quietly, the reality of the current situation coming back to her. They had to be serious here, this wasn't something to be taken lightly. "Yes, we should press on. I don't want the Mani Katti to fall into the wrong hands and we have to help Kent and Sain as soon as—"

Neither could talk about on what to plan next as something shiny descended from above, with a force fast enough to do some harm. Out of reflex, Lyn took Hitomi into one arm as some sort of protection; her left hand that held her sword squarely blocked the shimmering object, which was an axe.

"Purdy girls here shouldn't be in the battlefield, you see." The brigand sneered darkly, giving a smile full of grotesque, and some broken, teeth. "Wouldn't want to cut up your faces now unless you want yer own blood to mar it."

"Don't underestimate me because of my looks." Lyn warned coldly, a small smirk on her face. "And it won't be my blood that'll stain this ground."

Releasing the tactician, giving her a signal to go inside the sanctuary, Lyn lunged forward to attack her opponent.

_Kent and Sain… _Slipping inside the temple as quietly as possible, she saw that the cavaliers were already occupied in combat. Hiding behind a nearby pillar and leaning against it, she watched the battle in careful scrutiny. _Remember what I told you before…_

oOo

"Do you think Lady Lyndis and Lady Lenore are all right?" Kent asked seriously, rearing back his horse to dodge the brigand's axe. He had earned some injuries like a cut on the face and another on his shoulder, but they were minor injuries. The sword in his left hand was swung upwards and in what looked to be graceful elegance, the motion of it fluid. Yet it proved itself to be contradicting when it dived down and landed a deadly blow on its foe as Kent and his horse swerved sideways, the blade plunging into the foe's neck and guaranteeing an instant death. "One of them should've entered in the temple by now…"

"You worry too much, boon companion of mine!" Sain laughed heartily, ducking from his opponent's hit by barely a hair strand – quite the close call too as the axe managed to chip off a lock of dark hair. He, too, had his own share of minor injuries like how he had to block the axe with his armored arm and a light cut on his forehead. He struck deeply into the brigand's shoulder and he could tell he did well enough from the way his foe was swearing, pulling back by a few feet away. "I'm quite certain our beautiful ladies are all right. Lady Lyndis can fight with a blade and is deadly with it. As for Lady Lenore… While she's only commanding us, she seems to be fast on her feet."

The urge of using his lance was getting stronger, especially when finding out Glass was a sword-wielding mercenary, so Sain had to make this quick.

"Charge!" He pointed his sword at his opponent, wearing a gallant grin on his face. Encouraged from its master's valor, the horse whinnied loudly and stood on its hind legs. Landing on all four hooves again, the horse raced onward with blinding speed, rapidly closing the distance between Sain and his enemy. Blade out, Sain decided to use the velocity to his advantage, the impact rewarding him a deep thrust into the foe's chest. "Victory is mine!"

As they took their time to heal themselves with vulneraries before facing Glass, Kent only sighed at his friend's excessive course of action and shook his head softly. However, he couldn't help but have a slight smile onto his face. Knowing Sain since they were kids, he always knew the green armored cavalier would do anything to play the role of hero. He would be able to pull that off so well if it wasn't for the fact he wooed ladies on a daily basis.

In fact, he could still recall how Lady Lenore was looking quite annoyed about it earlier before battle. When Sain had learned that Glass wanted to take the Mani Katti and put two and two together that he wielded swords, Sain wanted to take advantage of this situation because it was the chance on being able to use his lance properly this time. The red armored cavalier was suppressing a snort at the memory, but he also felt a little worried by what the tactician had said when lecturing Sain.

oOo

"_Lady Lenore, please!" Sain pleaded__ as he gave the tactician his best pitiful face, puppy dog eyes and all. "Please, let me take out Glass for I wish to strike a blow in your name! Besides, you got Kent to kill off Zugu and that's unjustified to not let me take this one out with my own hands!"_

_**And what, have you get nearly killed like the last time? **__The tactician practically carved these words through the pages, dark eyes boring a hole through him. Sain gulped at the sight; it didn't matter if he knew her for a short while, he already knew that the look she was giving him meant she was very angry at him. __**I'm not having you make a blunder like that again. It seriously makes me question whether you're truly a knight of Caelin or not.**_

_Kent cringed inwardly at this. Harsh as those words w__ere, he knew Lenore was being honest. He also knew she was rather upset that Sain had used a lance that time when all of their opponents used axes, so she wasn't going to let that go easily. If anything, dare he said it, he could've sworn she was holding a grudge against his comrade just because of that. Lyn, however, looked to be thoroughly amused by this exchange, already aware why her companion was like this. _

"_Oh, come on! I've learned from that, so at least give me credit for knowing the Weapon Triangle properly now!"_

_**You should've been paying attention to that when you and Kent were just learning how cavalry works…**__** Really, I'm questioning your integrity as a knight here. **__Now it was obvious Hitomi was glaring at him from the way she was scowling, her eyes as sharp as daggers._

"_Ehehe… Pardon me, Lady Lenore, but I prefer having to see how the Weapon Triangle works in action and not in theory."_

_**That still doesn't excuse you from anything! You still should've paid the teachings in mind, even though it would've bored you! **__If she had her voice back, they were all sure that she'd be hissing her words out right about now. Hitomi rubbed her temples in irritation, writing the next words without thinking. __**As a tactician, I am responsible for your mistakes… So, understand why I am telling you this!**_

_This was as close as a__n outburst as the trio could ever get from her, but it had some sort of effect on them, leaving them to speculate what she meant by that. Lyn looked at Hitomi with worry and mystification while Kent was rooted to his spot, stunned. Sain became speechless after that and uneasy just as well. Hitomi, realizing what she wrote, dropped her journal in shock like it scalded her. Her expression was obscured because of her bangs, but it was noticeable that her hands were shaking and her mouth was into its tight grimace again… Only, for some unexplainable reason, it looked like a dark one in the eyes of the green knight._

"_Lady Lenore, your distressed state will mar your beauty…" Sain began slowly, daring to look at her face. He had to make sure that she knew he was focusing only on her now by maintaining eye contact. What other choice did he have? He had to use his wooing skills to placate her, even considering the risk that the tactician will surely kill him for it. Besides, in all honesty, seeing the strategist like this didn't suit her at all. Without thinking, he blurted out his usual flowery language, a silly grin on his face. "Are you worried that your Sain will fall in battle? My little angel, put yourself at ease for your love will keep this knight alive and well in the throes of the fray!"_

_Dynamically, the dark atmosphere had changed into a considerably lighter one. Kent couldn't believe what his best friend just said, unsure whether to feel relieved or exasperated. Lyn just shook her head, trying to keep her snickering in check__, but felt calmer now than she did before. As for Hitomi, she snapped out of her trance and looked at Sain with an unreadable face, though she looked to be in awe._

"_Worry not, my princess." He flashed a bright smile at her, swiftly taking her hand and placing it over his heart before she could react any further. If any stranger were to stumble upon this scene, they'd probably think they were lovers – and very sappy ones at that. "I will come back for you in safety and have my enemy fear the prowess of my lance."_

_Turning to a bowled over Kent, Sain pulled back from Hitomi and went on his steed. He lifted up his sword high in the air to signify that he was off._

"_Come now, Kent! Let us ride and defeat these curs who dare to taint the Mani Katti and the temple!"_

_The redhead could only nod, following his comrade's lead with his own blade brandished in hand._

_When left alone, Lyn turned to the dazed tactician and whispered, "What was that all about? You didn't even get a chance to hit him!" _

_Now choosing to snap out of it, a rather flustered Hitomi picked up her book from the ground and _wrote:

_**Now, you remind me! I guess I'll just have to wait until the end of the battle to give him a hit. I told him to quit using those **__**fancy lines on me, that oaf!**_

oOo

_Sain, you idiot… _Hitomi growled internally, running a hand through her short hair in agitation. She felt something was wrong with what happened earlier. Aside from her lecturing, and writing that out of her anger, it was also what Sain did. It just reminded her of something that— Hold on, why was she still thinking about it? Slapping the same hand on her forehead, she silently groaned. _This is why I disdain men who use that kind of tongue when speaking to me! Sain, I will get you when this is all over!_

Shortly after these thoughts, the tactician heard loud clangs reverberating all over the temple. Dodging a torch that was in the way and rolling behind the next pillar, so to not get caught, one eye poked out from the right of the column and watched what occurred.

"He's weakening!" Kent cried out in between pants, holding up his lance horizontally to block the broadsword with success. With quick reflexes, he held his lance in one hand and pulled back to lunge a jab at Glass, who had barely been able to sidestep it. "Damn, he dodged…"

"What, tired already?" Glass grinned smugly, slinging his broadsword over his shoulder. He bore several wounds from the two, from cuts to jabs, but he looked unfazed from it. There was a noticeable sheen of sweat on his forehead. "Don't waste your time for I know my men have already worn you out."

"I will not… Give up! In the name of my liege, I will strike you down!" Dead set in determination, Kent thrust the lance with as much force as he could apply, hitting dead on its target: Glass's shoulder. Glass screamed agonizingly and dropped his sword in a noisy clatter on the floor, the pain far too great.

"How dare you! Trying to take the Mani Katti when the spirits have already refused you… Die, scum!" Letting out a battle cry, a flash of green ran past the two knights and a blade stabbed Glass into his torso, cracking a few ribs while it was at it. Glass, not expecting that the swordswoman would arrive, couldn't move from the immense pain he was feeling.

"Lady Lyndis!" Both knights cried out in relief, watching as the blade lord took a step back.

"I'm glad to see you two are faring well. As for myself, I'm all right." She reassured them, beaming. Pointing her blood coated sword at Glass, she yelled out, "Now, Sain! This is your chance!"

"Got it! For my liege and for Lady Lenore!" He let his horse take a few steps back and held his lance back. Just like Kent did before, the lance was swung up, only Sain spun it with the same, graceful movement. Then, he charged in and shouted a cry, adrenaline pumping, as he rammed his lance into Glass's heart.

The mercenary only murmured a few, incomprehensible words before he took his last breath. All three of them were tired and were taking in deep breaths, but they were glad to get the job done. Out of nowhere, they heard clapping and, looking from a general direction where it could be heard, it was then the tactician chose this time to step out and reveal herself from her hiding place. She continued to applaud, stepping closer to her mercenary band.

When Hitomi finally stopped in front of them, the three wore shocked faces when they looked at her. It soon wore off as they all basked in the fact that their tactician was giving them a faint smile.

In her hands was her journal, which only contained a few words:

_**Good job, everyone. You did well. I cannot wait to see more of your progress.**_

When she turned to Sain, there was an indecipherable face she wore, which only made him puzzled and tentative. Lyn only grinned knowingly and Kent kept up his poker face (but seriously trying not to laugh) as the journal Hitomi was carrying had been used to give Sain a good smack on his head.

"Lady Lenore, oh, how you wound this knight so! What has your Sain done wrong?"

_**I told you not to us**__**e that kind of talk on me anymore and you're still doing it!**_

Sain closed his eyes expectedly, expecting another hit from her book. He only felt a feathery light tap on his head and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the tactician was holding her book with a very loose grip. Although she was still scowling, she was avoiding eye contact with him and there was a strangely timid air surrounding her. In perplexity of the tactician's change of emotions, he removed the object from the top of his head and what he read next got him to smile.

_**But… Thank you, **__**Sain, for coming back safe and sound.**_

oOo

While the tactician recalled the events that happened for today as the four traveled through a thick forest, the sun had set and signs of twilight were showing in the darkening sky. This journey was getting stranger every day, but it was not like Hitomi minded it. She was amazed Lyn became the Mani Katti's wielder, in spite of said-female's initial protests.

After a little further, the party decided to stop in the forest for the night. The battle as well as the travel had worn all of them out, so they began setting up camp. Kent already succeeded in lighting up a fire while Sain kept going out and coming back to fetch firewood. Tents were already assembled and Lyn had no difficulty hunting and gathering for food, though they were abundant in that aspect due to their rations. On either side of the fire were logs, serving as makeshift seats. While the men occupied the log on the left, the women went to the right.

As they ate their food with relish after a long day, Lyn, Kent, and Sain were talking about some stories on their lives. Usually, it was funny incidents that happened between Kent and Sain while Lyn spoke about how her life was like in the Lorca tribe. This kept them and the tactician entertained, so they would have something informative in order to know each other better. As time passed by, Hitomi felt troubled, aware that she had to share something about herself with them sooner or later. While Lyn knew she had her reasons, the knights did not and Hitomi knew they were curious about her. It bode ill for her, especially given her circumstances, so she had to think of some sort of excuse to get out.

"…And then, Sain ended up getting in trouble for not knowing that he was trying to woo someone of the upper class. Matters didn't help that that certain noble grew up with just older brothers, so they proceeded to chase him out of the area with weapons drawn." Kent recalled with clarity, his eyes lit up with mirth. Lyn was laughing freely while Sain looked to be sulking.

"Well, how was I to know she was a noble? !" Sain kicked up a fuss, taking a good bite out of his skewered chicken. "Lady Josephine disguised herself so well as someone from the middle class, so I couldn't tell her true identity! She wasn't even wearing her family's insignia and you're telling me that's my fault now? !"

"It would've helped if you just sensed some sort of powerful aura from her, you know." Lyn chuckled softly, munching on wild berries that she found in the woods. "You're a knight and you're surrounded with close associates of my grandfather on a daily basis, so you should've had some sort of feeling that this Lady Josephine wasn't an ordinary person."

"And don't use Lady Lyndis as an example because that doesn't count." Kent said sternly, swallowing down a morsel of his meal. "The only reason why we were able to tell she's Lord Hausen's granddaughter is because she looks exactly like Lady Madelyn… Of course, with some things inherited from Lord Hassar, respectively."

"Man, leave me alone with nobody to defend my name, why don't you?" Sain muttered sullenly, observing on how Kent and Lyn were getting along, only to have one strange thought pass through his head the moment he heard his friends' words. "Hey, I think you may be right. Speaking of which… Don't you think there's something suspicious about Lady Lenore?"

Lyn stiffened at the mention of the tactician's name, unsure of what to think or say in defense. Kent, however, only frowned and regarded his friend seriously on the matter.

"What, do you sense something about her, Sain?"

"Sort of… I can't tell, though." Now with a frown of his own, Sain was trying, with a little difficulty, to let out what he had in mind. "I'm just getting this feeling that there's more to her than how she looks. I'm not sure how to explain, but I can tell you one thing: she's hiding something. We only know she came out here with us to train herself in strategy, but… I feel there's more to it than that."

Lyn furrowed her brow, pondering on Sain's words. These days, there had been a nagging feeling about Hitomi ever since Lyn saved her in the Sacae plains. Although it was not her place to ask the tactician, part of her wished the older woman would open up about herself a little more. She felt Hitomi was creating a wall between them on purpose, separating herself from the rest of the world.

Turning to her right, Lyn finally found out that the spot next to her empty.

_When did she… Go to bed? _The Sacaean blinked in mild surprise, not quite believing Hitomi had eluded them some time ago. Yes, perhaps she sensed something like this was going to happen and took off while she still had the chance. If that was the case, she was clever.

Glancing at the first tent a few feet away from the fire at a diagonal left, Lyn looked crestfallen and anxious, biting down her lower lip.

_Hitomi…__ Are you distancing yourself from us…?_

oOo

She heard what they said outside, burying herself into her cot. She shivered hard and she knew it wasn't because of the cold night.

_They're already suspecting me. _Hitomi thought grimly, curling up and hugging her legs close to her body, diving down deeper in the sea of blankets. _They already concluded that I'm not just an ordinary tactician. Damn knights and their keen senses. Damn them and being surrounded by rich society just because they happen to serve a lord. It was foolish of me to forget that they have such a sense and I lived my life in that world! What if one of them had seen me before since my country is one of Caelin's closest allies? This isn't good… If things continue on like this, my true identity will be exposed in no time._

Hitomi closed her eyes and took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down from the fear that was making her heart rise up to her throat. She shouldn't have done that as a memory chose to show itself, much to her dismay. She suspected it had to do with Sain's previous actions, which she still couldn't get out of her mind. Why did it bother her so much?

No, on second thought, she didn't want to answer that.

Concealing her face into her knees, her eyes were tightly shut to meet the darkness. She already knew that she wouldn't sleep well tonight, so there was no point of second-guessing the obvious. Hitomi couldn't afford to predict for what good did that do when the unexpected happened and led others to their downfall? What if everything went wrong? That was why she needed solid facts, awareness of her surroundings, and preparation as her tools of the trade. If necessary, a back up plan would do wonders in the case of enemy reinforcements.

She couldn't take risks when it came to error, she knew this, and Elimine be damned if emotions interfered with her current conscience right now. Like Hell she would let them back into her life, not after it took a lot of time to make herself this way. She was a tactician – someone who kept feelings and logic, camaraderie and business, separate at all costs.

_No__… You don't need to know anything about me, so don't poke your nose into where it doesn't belong. I'm just a nameless tactician who is doing her job as she's supposed to…_

_So, don't come any closer__ or I will shut you out. _

oOo

"_It is forbidden, you cannot be close to your mercenaries – be it out of friendship or romance. We're supposed to be their leaders in combat, nothing more, that means the only times we're allowed to make conversation is when battle plans need to be discussed. Close associations with them outside that will lead to painful consequences, so we must always keep our distance intact to the very end. Once war is done, we don't stay with them. We move on as if we never existed in their lives. Do you understand, Princess? That is what the life of a tactician is like."_

* * *

Hitomi: Ohoho~ What is this? This was… An unexpected development. No, really, I had intended the chapter to go in a different direction and, somehow, it's like this. ;D But I can't reveal too much! Or otherwise, it's just going to ruin everything.

Blah, I know I suck at fighting scenes, so I'm sorry! *hides* As said… Action isn't my strong suit, so I should really work on that…

I look forward to writing Chapter 5~ XD And I am not telling you why! That shall be revealed when I write it!


	6. Divine Intervention

Hitomi: Here we go again! Wow, I guess I must be having fun writing this fanfic. Don't get me wrong, I am proud of the other fanfics I've written, but this feels different to me, somehow. Probably because I finally get to focus on a lot of things in this story as it has a lot of genres to it this time (besides, I've been writing darker/depressing stuff lately, so it's about time I get to insert a lot of comedy here), not to mention it IS Fire Emblem (and this particular version (FE7) leaves me with cherished memories and good vibes).

;D And since pairings are still undecided, I'm still going to work on that slowly. Of course, I'd want to focus on friendship too~ I'd also want to do something beyond the canon of Lyn's route since this is how most FE7 fics start and I have a lot of things in mind for this before going to Eliwood's/Hector's routes. But I shouldn't rush the story and write it at its own pace.

Oh yeah, the way the tactician observes the canon characters are based on the stats I have for said-characters (despite the fact that's far into the campaign since I'm in Eliwood's route at the moment and the characters are at high levels).

Ahhh, I've been looking forward to this chapter~ You'll see why soon enough!

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

* * *

**Irony**

**Escape V** | **Divine Intervention**

「_It is fate when you unexpectedly meet someone close to you on your journey._

_To some, it is a blessing for you need that strength and support in your companionship._

_However, what if the person you meet up on that road_

_Is the last person you want to see?_

_Then, it may be considered as a bad omen._

_Ah, alas, how the fates can be cruel, indeed…_」

* * *

The familiar surroundings of her dark tent greeted her when she slowly opened her eyes. It didn't look like morning was on the horizon yet from outside, though she could've been fooled by the faint light she saw from the opening of her tent. Sitting up, she broke herself from the bonds of sleep. Resurfacing for air from the oceans of cotton and wool, it revealed red from the light robe she wore for the night.

_What…? Maybe I woke up too early__ again? _Hitomi thought grumpily, letting out a silent yawn as she gave her body well needed stretches. _Damn, I'm not even sure who to blame for instilling this habit in me anymore. Lord Brother? Rose? Maybe… _

The next person she was about to think of was the only person that got her to scowl so early in the morning. Then again, her fiancé came at a close second, given his reputation as a womanizer. This person, however, she was mad at for a different reason. If she ever saw him again when she got home—

_No, no… Calm down, Hitomi… _She rubbed her temples gently with her fingers, easing herself from the already rising temper that was starting to boil in her blood. She had to discard him from her thoughts and fast – wouldn't want to show her soldiers being like this so early, now, did she? Oh right, neutral territory towards them, same thing. _Forget about him and don't blame him either because, without him, you wouldn't be a tactician right now._

She fell back down on her bedroll with a soft thump, shielding her eyes with an arm and breathing out what presumed to be a loud sigh.

_Why__ did I even bother getting up when there's barely any light out? Maybe I should go back in bed and rest up a little bit more—_

"Hahaha! I got you now, Kent!" An all-too-familiar yet very loud voice boomed energetically, erasing her train of thought completely. "Yaaah! Take that!"

"I always did say you were a worthy partner and that's still true, but I won't have you brag when it's not clear who the victor is yet, Sain!" Another recognizable voice responded just as boldly to the other, although the tone was leaning a little on the serious side. "Let's see how you'll deal with this!"

_Well, there goes the notion of going back to sleep. _She lamented gloomily with another sigh, feeling wide awake now. Oddly enough, she felt good vibes when hearing those two being up and about.

Was that metal clanging the tactician heard? As Hitomi strained her ears to listen, and sure enough, she heard sharp clashing that was echoing. She couldn't tell which of their weapons the two knights were using. Was it a sword duel? Were they using their lances? Or were they pitting against each other by applying the Weapon Triangle into their spar?

From her observation on the two, she already had a hunch that Kent was more adept in sword fighting from the way he used his blade when on horseback. Though she was into swordplay herself, she never had the aptitude or the bravery to wield a sword while riding a horse – for that, she commended and respected him immensely. He was balanced when it came to strength and defense, but they were lacking a little compared to his skill and speed – he was just like Lyn in those aspects.

_He may be honor bound and serious, but he's virtuous. _The tactician couldn't help but be reminded of her bodyguard back at home because of the red clad cavalier. _Although, compared to Kent, Rose is a bit more lenient when outside her duties._

Now, her thoughts drifted to Sain. After pondering about him for a while, she grudgingly yet admittedly concluded that he was, indeed, better with lances than his companion (however, she still agreed with Kent that skill was preferable than empty bragging). She felt disgruntled as ever when recalling his foolishness in the battle of Zugu, but she saw he was a hard worker and she admired him for that. It was undeniable that his strength was his best asset, but it was hard to tell what else his strong points were.

Lances were difficult things to handle – at least to Hitomi since, on the occasion when Rose made countless attempts to teach her the basics, her clumsiness got the best of her. It required a lot of effort as it was not easy for her to cooperate with, especially when it was a weapon of both close and distant combat. So, she could only imagine how daunting it was to do wield it when on a horse and she respected Sain for that too.

_I still think of him as a scoundrel, though, what with the wooing and all. Nonetheless, he's enthusiastic and shows it by being diligent. _She noted with an approving nod, though she couldn't help herself by shaking her head halfheartedly. _Makes me wonder how Kent and Sain became friends in the first place. Ah well, friendship can be odd at times._

As she finally made a move to get up from her folding bed, she stretched her limbs again and let out another quiet yawn she didn't know she was stifling. Spotting her bag nearby, she went to the corner of the tent and dug into it, drawing out another robe—this time of black and yellow—to slip over the one she was already wearing. When she was done smoothing out the robe from wrinkles and fastening her sword to her hip, her wardrobe was complete once she threw the green traveling cloak over her head. Rubbing her eyes, and without a mirror to show her how she looked, she cautiously made sure to keep a straight face before heading outside.

_Remember what he told__ you: be polite and make sure to do your duty well, but keep your distance. _She reminded herself seriously as she always did for three years, making last minute preparations to fix her short hair as best as she could by raking her fingers through it. _It's times like this that I'm glad I lost my voice and need to rely on my writing instead._

Taking in a deep breath, she approached the entrance of her tent and flipped it open.

_Time to observe the duel of the knights… And see if Lyn's awake yet._

oOo

It was hard not to be energized in the morning once you looked at the scenery before you. In the light of dawn, they were already fully awake and were peculiarly high spirited. It could be because they rested so peacefully or it could be because the rush from the other day's battle kept them on their toes. Either way, they were making use of their time and being productive about it.

"Hah!" Kent shouted, swinging his sword downwards with all of his might, intent to land a blow. At this, Sain had ducked at the last minute and stepped back as he held up his lance horizontally, letting it shield him from his partner's strike.

"You're going to have to do better than that!" The green clad knight replied cheekily, still keeping his weapon in place but looping it under the blade, so Kent had no way out from retrieving it. Kent nodded curtly, a way to show his praise to the other for he had his quick wits about him. What was unexpected was how Kent suddenly let go of its hilt, causing Sain to be off-guard and fall back in surprise, his grip on his weapon momentarily loosened. Before it touched the earth, Kent tackled into the grass and caught it in his hand and, simultaneously while still on the ground, flipping his body and made a go at slashing Sain with a wide strike. Having not foreseen this, Sain instinctively backed away from the slash and held tightly his lance in a diagonal angle, trying to calm down his wildly beating heart. Letting out a small chuckle, he commented admiringly, "Whew… That was risky, but that was good thinking there, my friend."

"Thank you. And the same to you," the other admitted with a small smile, getting up and dusting off the dirt that clung to his armor. He held his sword in front of him, legs wide in their stance. "However, we shall see who will win!"

"But, of course~"

They were at it again. This time, Sain made the initiative by running in and lunging with lance held back, now thrusting forward to make a hit. Kent merely step sided, letting Sain's hit aim towards the ground. He made use of this distraction with his sword swinging into an uppercut and ready to land on his companion's back, that was open for hit. However, little did he know that Sain was just fooling him, quickly pulling out his lance from its vertical position (the tip wasn't even buried in the ground, it just looked like it because the grass was long) and swerving his body to protect his back, blocking the sword with the lance's body out of defense.

"What…! ? That was just a feint? !" Kent was the one to be caught off-guard this time. "Unbelievable… That was clever, I admit it."

"Well, I had to think of something, so what other way was there to let your enemy think they have the upper hand but to look defenseless?" Sain smiled slyly, giving a shrug. He nodded with praise as he made note of what Kent attempted to do earlier while he plotted his feint. "You always find an opportunity to strike your foe in every way possible, though, so I commend you for that."

"Good morning, Kent and Sain!" The last voice that spoke up was one to be expected, but it made them back away from each other in surprise and hastily sheathed their weapons. "It's time to have breakfast!"

"L-Lady Lyndis! ?" Both called simultaneously and still in shock. They weren't expecting their liege to be up so early let alone make breakfast for them. It dawned on them on why, though – right, they had completely forgotten she lived alone in the Sacae plains for six months, so it was obvious she had to find food for herself. It didn't mean she had to do it alone, though! She was the heir of Caelin for Elimine's sake and Lord Hausen would've had their heads if he found out his granddaughter was injured or worse.

"Well, who else would it be?" The Sacaean princess joked, aware that the two knights were most likely thinking the worst case scenarios of what would've happened to her if left alone. As much as she appreciated their concern, she felt it was unnecessary at times. With a light sigh but a bright smile at these thoughts, she beckoned them, "Come on and sit down here! If you don't hurry, your food will get cold!"

"I've always considered you a beauty from the moment I laid my eyes on you, but you're even more dazzling when you smile, milady!" Sain complimented in grandeur, trotting over to where the food had been set up. Kent just shook his head, expecting this, as he made his way to Lyn at a slower pace.

"Ah… Lovely Lady Lyndis, this is… Oh no, I can't eat your wonderful cooking without feeling guilty that I didn't help you with it…"

"Milady, Sain is right… You didn't have to go through all of this just to feed us, your humble servants… We could've helped you…"

Both knights wore guilty looks and, at this, Lyn shook her head firmly. When shame turned to confusion on their faces, she only gave them a warm smile, saying gently:

"Don't be ridiculous! You two have helped me in battle and always risked your lives for me. And while I may be heir of Caelin, don't lower your statuses to that of servants because you're knights of Caelin and you fight with honor. Besides, being heir is only a title, so it shouldn't make any difference. I'm only human and so you are you two and everyone else." They were about to protest at this, but Lyn had beaten them to it, "No complaints, please… I don't want to be treated as special just because I'm heir to Caelin's throne, especially when I have no interest in the title. I want to be treated as a normal person."

"Lady Lyndis…"

"Milady…"

Since they had no comeback for this, Lyn nodded, satisfied that she was able to say these things honestly and that they understood.

"Now then," once more, she gave them a bright smile and gestured her hands to the food. "Shall we eat?"

Although they didn't have a table, there were makeshift dishware and utensils due to shopping in Bulgar when Lyn and Hitomi were getting ready for traveling. The fire was already out, but there was still lingering warmth from where it once was. There were a few dishes that settled around them, but they were appetizing, nonetheless – meat and vegetable stew, roasted rabbit, boiled bird eggs, and porridge with honey and berries.

"And thank you, Sain. For the compliment you gave earlier." Lyn replied modestly, giving the green knight a placid nod as he sat on one of the logs. She got used to it by now. When Kent sat beside him, Lyn remarked quietly, "If you're wondering how long I've been up, well… Let's just say I saw your little fight earlier while I was cooking the food."

"Ah, so you did?" A big smile curved onto Sain's face, already starting to eat his portion of cooked rabbit. Nudging his companion's ribs, he questioned eagerly, "So, who did you think was going to win?"

"Sain, don't make her choose." Kent sighed, quietly drinking up his meat and vegetable stew, figuring that Lyn must've gotten these ingredients from their rations. Truth be told, he felt a little embarrassed around Lyn because of her having seen them spar earlier, his face a light shade of pink. Sure, there was nothing wrong with that as she had seen them battle before, but that was on their steeds. In their duel, they were battling on foot.

_Ah, I must've looked awkward earlier, then. _Kent thought uncomfortably, trying to concentrate on the meal. Then, he heard Lyn spoke up and he stopped his task at the moment, anticipating and dreading her answer.

"Hmmm," while helping herself to a boiled egg and peeling off the shell, Lyn replied sincerely with a smile, "I couldn't tell. Even though Lenore says that lances best swords in the Weapon Triangle, it looked like both of you are on equal footing. I admit that the weapons you picked are suitable for you, though. All in all… It was entertaining to see you two like that. I thought knights would be so formal and the like when it comes to combat."

"While that may be true," Kent responded softly, feeling a little more relaxed now that he heard her opinion and finally getting back to eating his food. "In training, we start off by using weapons on foot before using them when on horseback. It's very useful too when you've suddenly fallen off your horse in the middle of battle, so you can say it's a back up plan."

"Of course, we can't help ourselves but spar without the use of formality because that's how men work when it comes to fighting~" Sain commented brightly with a mischievous grin, happily eating his share of boiled egg. This time, Kent was the one to elbow Sain's ribs, but the latter looked at the former innocently and said, "What? It's true! Don't tell me when you're in battle, you do give courtesy before you fight to the death! That's asking for your head to be chopped off without being aware of it!"

"At least, to some degree, we should show respect to our foes because they're fighting with all of their strength and with honor as much as we are." Kent replied seriously, giving his comrade a sharp look. "What if we were fighting against General Eagler right now?"

"Like that would ever happen! He's our Commander and he's also a paladin, so we're nowhere near his level!"

"Oh my… I better wake up Lenore." Lyn mumbled thoughtfully in concern, letting the knights bicker amongst themselves and hardly listening as she got up from her seat, ready to head over to said-person's tent. "I hope she's all right, she—"

Speak of the Devil, it was then the tactician chose to waltz into the scene and unceremoniously plopped herself onto the log at the right. All three of them looked at her in astonishment, having not expected her to be up. Then again, suspicions from last night still remained in regards of her being an enigma, but they shook it off.

Feeling their stares, Hitomi gave them a confused expression and wrote: _**What's the matter? It's like you three have seen a ghost or something!**_

"Well, I thought you looked really tired the other day, so I decided not to wake you until now." Lyn explained honestly, giving the older woman an apologetic face. "Did you sleep well?"

_**Somewhat, **_she wrote down, shaking her head softly to tell Lyn that there was no need to be sorry. _**And oh, where are my manners… Good morning, Lyn, Kent, and Sain. I hoped you slept well after what happened recently.**_

"Morning, Lady Lenore. And thank you for saying that, I've had a peaceful sleep."

"Ah, the morning may be good, but it isn't as beautiful as you, Lady Lenore! Your beauty is like a ray of sunshine; nay, it has a heavenly glow! And my thanks for your concern, I slept like a log!"

Laughing to herself, Lyn gave Hitomi a bowl of the porridge, which the older woman took gratefully, and said warmly, "And good morning to you too, Lenore. I slept well, thank you."

Taking a spoonful of porridge in her mouth, the tactician's face brightened a little from its sweet taste. She ate with relish, deciding to help herself with the rest of the food.

As they made small talk with each other, Hitomi scribbled down with a nonchalant air: _**Oh right, I forgot to tell you that I've been up for some time. By the time I was fully awake and prepared, I stepped outside to see Kent and Sain were in a fight.**_

Kent went pink again, turning his face away with hand on his forehead, while Sain ended up having a choking fit as he ate his porridge. Lyn, while surprised that Hitomi had been up for that long without being seen, was trying not to laugh at her knights' reactions.

"Begging your pardon, Lady Lenore, but if you were up at that time, why didn't you notify us right away?"

"O beauteous one! Why didn't you let us see you if you were watching us? Unless, of course, you were rooting for me and you were too bashful to s—"

Hitomi had cut off Sain's blabbering by giving him an incredulous but more indignant look. Gulping, the green cavalier kept quiet, going back to eating.

_**Well, I didn't want to interrupt the brawl because it was interesting to watch. And aside from that, as a tactician, I wanted to see how you two were faring. **_She wrote reasonably, helping herself to another bowlful of porridge while eating a boiled egg. _**Mind you, I had been on my toes when watching.**_

"What… What did you think of the battle, milady?"

"Lovely Lenore, who did you think was going to win?"

_**If I were to say…**_

While one knight waited with baited breath, the other just looked at her curiously. Lyn just shook her head, but aiming this at Sain for his expectations to be told that he was the winner.

_**Both of you are really on equal footing, never mind the fact that lances does best swords. The weapons you picked**__** for yourselves are also suitable, from what I've observed in the duel and the last battles we've had. It would also help if you two also learn to pick your opposite weapon (lance for Kent, sword for Sain), so it'd be beneficial to take down different enemies. Remember that since you two are cavaliers, you would know that they are versatile with different weapons… And when promoted to paladins, they are able to use axes.**_

"Ah, I see. Thank you for your honesty, Lady Lenore. Looks like you and Lady Lyndis share the same sentiments." Kent nodded in acknowledgment, finishing his egg. "While it's true both Sain and I know about cavalry better, I'm glad to hear you've learned this piece of knowledge in your studies."

"Good advice, Lady Lenore. And wow, not only are you beautiful, you are intelligent as well!" However, all of the praising stopped once Sain pouted at her and whined, "But you just said what Lady Lyndis told earlier, that Kent and I are equals! Lances best swords, so…"

_**I am not one to take sides. **_Hitomi was now giving a sharp glare at the pouting cavalier, ready to hit him with her journal as she was fingering its spine in thought of going through with it or not. _**I just see things as they are, so stop being a braggart. And what did I tell you about using flowery language when speaking to me? !**_

Between a laugh and a sigh, Lyn shook her head once again, returning to eating what remained of her stew in her bowl.

oOo

After cleaning and packing up their things, the four were on the road again and continued on westward to Lycia, making their way out of the forest and into the mountains. Right now, they were in the Sacae-Bern border, and being cautious about it as an unsettling atmosphere brewed in the air. In anticipation, fear, and a swell of vengeance, Lyn knew where they were and clenched fists on her lap.

They were in the Taliver Mountains, also the home of the Taliver bandits who killed the Lorca tribe.

_I will not run away… _With narrow eyes, Lyn's right hand made its way to one of her swords' sheaths, a rigid grip on the Mani Katti's hilt. As a sword blessed with spirits, Lyn felt the power of the blade pulsing as if in tune with her current emotions. _I told myself I would get stronger when my tribe was killed. And I've renewed that vow when traveling with Hitomi. So, I can't—no, I won't—turn back now._

From the corner of his eye, Kent noticed the Sacaean princess doing this, a twinge of concern entering his conscience. However, he said nothing and focused his eyes back on the road ahead, knowing that it was the mood this place gave off that made all of them like this. Even Sain sensed the disturbance and kept quiet for once, looking around the surroundings warily.

The formation of the four were like this – Hitomi and Lyn were in the middle, riding Blitz, while Kent and Sain were acting like flanks on either side of them in case of a threat, weapons drawn and on their respective horses.

_It's been… Ten days since we left Sacae, if I've been tracking the number of days right.__ When I ran away, though, I had a five days' head start… Then, got knocked out for two days when running away from those bandits and being rescued by Lyn, so that makes it seven… That means it's been seventeen days since I left home. _Hitomi noted carefully, aware that the lighter air they had before back at camp was long gone and replaced by a thick tension you could cut a weapon with. Gripping her own sword from inside her cloak's pockets, she had a dark look in her eyes. _If only I could just… I'm still weak…_

Eyes wide open to see even the little things and ears straining to pick up a sound, any sound at all, and making progress of sensing looming danger from somewhere. Ah, the excruciating tension, the just as anguishing if not deliciously sadistic suspense, and a little dosage of paranoia settling into the minds and hearts of warriors everywhere. The only thing that remained to take action was when said-danger would strike.

Shortly after, they encountered a devastating view. This used to be a thriving town and it was surrounded by walls, some were in intersections. While there was an armory nearby, most of the villages were in ruins, save for two. A lot of damage had been done to them as there were signs of charred material, nothing to be remained unscathed. In horror, they also realized that within those villages, there was a dark substance on the ground next to rusting weapons that were also marked with the same thing on some parts: dried blood.

"This is…" Kent was the first one to finally speak up, his throat dry at the sight.

"What happened here?" Sain whispered hoarsely, his eyes wide.

"This obviously used to be a town. However, it's like this because of the Taliver bandits." Lyn said softly, a bitter edge to her voice as she slid off Blitz. "No Marquess rules here, so the people are left to defend for themselves. But from what we're seeing now, it only means that most of them haven't been successful. The Taliver bandits…"

Trying to keep her temper under control, they saw it was hard for her to do as Lyn spat out venomously her next words.

"The Taliver Bandits don't know what humanity is. They raid, kill, and pillage people without second thoughts. My tribe was on the other side of this mountain and it only took them one night to kill most of us. Including myself, there were less than ten survivors. Father and Mother fought to protect everyone to the very end, including myself, so they gave up their lives.

"I've come this far in my journey and I won't run away. One day, I'll come back and get stronger… I swear to Father Sky and Mother Earth that I will avenge my people with the blood of these lowlifes on my sword."

Hitomi turned away and closed her eyes, trying not to listen to Lyn's words. Honestly, it was painful to hear them from one so young. In her indifferent perspective, she felt the Sacaean princess shouldn't think such thoughts as she had a lot to live for, but she already knew that she was too stubborn for her own good when it came to this kind of thing. Moreover, because Hitomi knew what Sacaeans were like (being part Sacaean herself), she was aware that they were taught to fight from a young age. So, not only if she spoke out her true feelings to Lyn on the matter, it would make the tactician look bad. It would also make her look hypocritical.

Vaguely, she heard Kent and Sain asking Lyn to let them come with her when the time of revenge came. Hitomi only nodded slowly and wrote the following nonchalantly: _**Don't get too carried away. You still have your grandfather as family and, while you're adept with your sword, Lyn, I'm not letting you die a foolhardy death for the sake of revenge. You're not fulfilling it alone, understand? Not without my guidance. Because I know you well enough to see that you tend to rush into Death from when we first met in the Sacae Plains.**_

"Lenore… You…"

_I am only saying this as a tactician should. I'm not saying this because I'm worried or anything because I'm not. _Hitomi affirmed seriously, only looking at Lyn's touched face from the corner of her eye. While telling herself these thoughts, she felt a pang of a strange pain somewhere, but she promptly ignored it. _So, don't look at me like that… Please, don't look at me like that. I'm not…_

"Thank you."

_I'm not worthy of your thanks._

She only nodded again to show that she heard her. Now, the tactician needed something to distract herself with, and fast. There had to be something, anything, to divert her attention from Lyn and her thoughts—

The panic inside of her ceased as her ears perked up, hearing a faint sound nearby. It was delicate and gentle, but it was desperate and afraid.

A whimper…?

Whipping her head back to her front, Hitomi spotted some commotion on the other side of one of the walls' intersections. She was only able to see two men, but in the middle of the two looked like a diminutive and scared female. Nearby them looked to be a Pegasus, which was making a fuss over the girl – its owner. Cursing in her head, the tactician squeezed her horse at both sides with her legs, making him go off into a running start forward.

"Lenore? ! W-Wait, what's going on? !" She heard Lyn's alarmed voice calling after her with Kent and Sain hot on her trail, but she disregarded it, focusing on her current objective.

_So, you have the audacity to gang up on a woman, eh?_When in tactician duties, she was calm and indifferent (except when it came to Sain). Outside of that, she had her temper in other things. If there was another thing that made Hitomi mad (aside from flirty men), it was how the strong tended to bully the weak, especially when the weak were outnumbered. She seethed internally at the sight, wondering how frightened the female must be by now. As far as the tactician could assess, the girl was a Pegasus knight (thus, not weak in the physical sense), but she was still surrounded by men who were stronger than her by far. Such a thought made her grit her teeth in anger, her blood ignited like liquid fire in her veins._ I'll make sure you'll pay for that, bastards!_

Putting pressure on the horse's body again and giving it a critical look, it seemed that it understood its mistress's intentions for it halted its rush. The impact of the abrupt stop sent the tactician flying onward, launching her straight into the brewing dilemma. Before being catapulted by her steed, she had been quick enough to get her sheathed sword from under her robes. Now that she had been hurled in the air at blinding speeds, she readied herself by holding the covered blade in an offensive position.

_TAKE THIS!_

"What the…? !" Migal of the Ganelon Bandits, having been busy intimidating Florina, didn't have time to react properly when he saw something—rather, someone—heading straight towards him. Not knowing what to expect, the next thing he knew was, not only did the force of the blow had knocked the wind out of him, something blurry came down at his head and emitted a sharp whack. He roughly pushed the person off of him and got up, spewing in fury at the tactician, "Bitch, who the Hell do you think you are, knocking me down and trying to bash my head open? ! This ain't any business of yours, so don't play the hero here!"

"Florina? !" Lyn's anxious voice cried out, addressing the orchid-haired female when she came rushing to her aid, Kent and Sain not too far behind.

"Lyn…!" Feeling that she was going to drop on her knees out of shock from the well needed rescue, the girl called Florina rushed over to Lyn and tackled her into a tight embrace, shaken with fear and relief as she started to cry uncontrollably. Lyn murmured soothing words to calm down her friend, sending an angry glower at the bandits. Kent and Sain kept their weapons out, already perceiving a battle coming out of this.

_Seeing you harass that girl is my business. _Landing on the ground after being pushed down, Hitomi just got up calmly and dusted her robes off, fastening her sheathed sword on her hip. A horrendous pain ripped her from the inside, but she paid no mind to it, channeling this and her anger towards the brigands. There was a very perilous aura around her that everyone sensed and, already, something told them not to come near her right now unless they wanted a death wish. Unable to talk, the message she gave the two bandits, by means of an equally dangerous glare, told them all they needed to know. _Let me tell you this: what you did just now is something I will not step aside and watch you do. _

"Ah, so you can't talk?" Migal murmured thoughtfully, studying the tactician. Smirking, he clamored with a raucous laugh once he caught Lyn's eyes boring holes through him, "Not like we would've let this pass, anyway, just because that girl was blubbering apologies for her Pegasus landing on me! She and that flying mule are still ours! Boys, it's our lucky day for a fight! Get the men, but no laying a hand on the women!"

With a light whistle from him, a couple of armed bandits came out of their hiding places, their smirks holding unspoken motives. Lyn swore silently, drawing out the Mani Katti and shielding Florina behind her. Florina, by then, had mounted on her Pegasus and took out a lance. Kent and Sain were already on their toes, positioning their horses properly, so they could get a good angle from wherever they attack.

"Lenore, whenever you're ready." Lyn whispered to her when the tactician took her place next to her. Hitomi nodded firmly, already formulating strategies in her head.

oOo

"Did you hear that?" In the village nearby, at the inn, Rai's hand instinctively gripped his sword's hilt when he heard the noise from outside.

"Yeah," a male brunette responded seriously, slinging his quiver on his back while testing the tightness of his bowstring and nodding in satisfaction when he found it just right. "Remember that bandits do come here to disturb us, as you already know from the ruins, so it's possible some innocents were caught by them. Most likely, there'll be a battle, I can just feel it."

"Mmm," the swordsman nodded in agreement, preparing the necessities before setting out to see what was going on. "All right, Wil. Cythras said that in case something like this happened, we'll have to launch a surprise attack to catch them off-guard."

Rai insisted many times over to Keiya, ever since they traveled out of Badon, that they needed to have aliases while searching for the princess. When Keiya had to ask why, which earned him a good slap at the back of his head, the swordsman argued that nobody should know about him being the Chancellor because it'll only get him in trouble if he happened to encounter anyone that knew of his reputation of being a womanizer. So, Keiya became Cythras while Rai became Remsicaldi (or Rem, for short).

"Ah, that's right." Wil nodded with a smile, but it faded a little as he looked around in confusion. "Speaking of… Rem, where is he, anyway?"

"What? !" Rai looked around wildly, finding that the third male was gone. "I told that guy to stay put under these kinds of circumstances, but he just had to go out—"

"Halt, evildoers!" A strong voice bellowed gallantly, echoing somewhere from above. "You dare to taint the purity of these beautiful angels? ! The Guardian of Love cannot stand for this INJUSTICE! Prepare for your imminent doom!"

"…I knew it…" Rai groaned exasperatedly, hand slapping his forehead. Not even wanting to think what was going to come out of this, he turned to the now snickering archer and said, "Wil, go on ahead and warn the villagers there are bandits outside, so they would lock up the village entrance. Then, after you're done, use this opportunity to launch arrows. Meanwhile, I will go and have a little 'talk' with that _distraction_ about this."

With a sympathetic smile when watching Rai trying hard to control his temper, Wil nodded and turned about-face, bolting right outside of the inn's door to do as he was told. Rai only sighed loudly and went up the staircase, knowing his guess of Keiya's whereabouts had to be right on the mark because it was very like his liege to make a dramatic, dynamic entry.

_Grrr, Kei, you fool! _

oOo

Everyone outside heard the loud voice and turned their heads to look up just when they were ready to fight. It didn't take them long enough to be able to spot someone on one of the roofs of the village's residences. He was in a clichéd heroic pose, positioning on his right side – one leg was stretched out to the back as the other leg bent its knee forward, his arms with their elbows bent and pointing to the sky. His head was generally in the same direction as his body, his facial expression fearless with the sudden wind pushing back his tied up hair to exaggerate the drama. Seeing that all eyes were on him, Keiya turned to them and grinned widely, out of his pose and bowing with a flourish.

"Ladies," he called out charmingly, giving them his best smile. The three females—Lyn, Florina, and Hitomi—each had their own reactions towards this strange man. From what he made out in the distance, Lyn shook her head as if she was unsure on what to make of the situation at hand, an unreadable expression on her face. Florina, as timid and uneasy as ever when it came to men, flushed pink and looked away, hiding herself from view by hiding behind Lyn. Hitomi, however, shot him a critical glare as if daring him to call her an angel or something of similar lines again. The bandits as well as the knights gave him fierce looks to send him back to reality with the fact that they were there too and they would not be ignored. Feeling the intensity of the men's glowers, Keiya acknowledged them grudgingly with a small frown of his own, "And gentlemen. Now that we've been made acquaintances, let's get down to business, shall we~?"

If anyone were able to read minds at this moment, it was obvious that they (except Florina) were thinking these kinds of thoughts: _The Hell we are your acquaintances! Who the Hell are you? !_

"Tough crowd," Keiya mumbled softly to himself, but shrugged this off and grinned widely, going back to speaking in his dramatic voice as he pointed an accusing finger at the bandits, "You brutes! Stooping so low that you even consider attacking females! Behold, I shall smite you with the aid of the heavens that you will beg to Saint Elimine for mercy in regret of having crossed my path!"

Lifting up his hands, Keiya summoned a Thunder tome out of thin air. Automatically, the book opened, pages flipping at lightning speeds as traces of its magic were zapping at the tips of his fingers.

"O element of the storms, thou shall smite thy enemies in the path of thy unmatched fury—"

"CYTHRAS!"

"Eh? A-ACK, REM!"

The inn was some distance away from Keiya's current location, but it was something Rai managed easily as his training got him to hop on and off high places to increase the agility and stamina. So, he jumped from one rooftop to another as fast as he could to get to his employer, his anger growing on the way.

"You…" Rai fumed at his companion, quite livid as he got out his still sheathed sword, every step towards the mage slow but precarious. "I told you not to be an idiot because of women being involved in this, but you never listen to a word I say…!"

"Ehehehe…" Backing away, Keiya held up his hands in surrender, a nervous grin on his face as he was sweating bullets. "Now, now, let's not be hasty…"

"Don't tell me that! We were supposed to do a sneak attack tactic on these bandits, but you just had to blow our cover!"

"Eh?" Keiya's face twisted into confusion, staring at his best friend with innocent eyes. "We were?"

Rai froze instantly in place, unsure if he heard those words coming out of his comrade's mouth. Then, as if he had a stiff neck, the myrmidon turned his head to the mage slowly, an unreadable expression on his face. There was no telling what he was feeling, but a dark aura emitted from him.

"So, you mean to say…" He spoke calmly—a little too calmly—with a stiff smile on his face. "You forgot you were the one who made the plan in the first place?"

"Well, ahaha, you see…" The other male mumbled his reasoning apprehensively, just like a kid who was trying to explain himself in order to placate a very furious parent. Scratching the back of his head, he clarified with a sheepish smile, "I thought that we should change the plan by me playing the distraction while you and Wil would use this opportunity to strike them while they were occupied instead. Eheh, I thought it would work, seeing as bandits can be slow-witted, if you know what I mean…"

Migal must've heard this for his shouting could be heard from below them, "I heard that, you twit!"

"Oh. Is that so…?"

With a lump stuck in his throat, not liking how Rai was acting right now, Keiya admitted abashedly with hands up in surrender again (and maybe as a way to defend himself), smiling all the while, "…Okay, MAYBE I also forgot about the plan while making this as a strategy. But, but, that is because there are women in trouble! How could I NOT spring into action like this? ! Besides, this is a golden opportunity to look like a knight in shining armor for them~"

Listening intently, both Lyn and Hitomi rolled their eyes, obviously not buying it. Florina still stayed behind Lyn, not sparing the mage a glance. Kent just held his hand to his head, having a premonition that this was going to be a long day. Sain was hard to describe at this moment – he looked caught between glee, awe, and a little bit of intimidation. If this Cythras was going to be their ally, then he had a fellow friend and rival as far as the topic of women was concerned.

"So… You really did forget."

"Admittedly, I did."

"Because of the ladies again, right?"

"…Yes, Rem." Keiya whimpered in a weak voice and lowered his head in shame, feeling very much like a kid who got caught in a lie.

"I see." The frozen smile turned into a dark smirk as Rai got into position, the sinister air around him crackling like fire.

The occupants on ground level watched as the myrmidon back flipped, sheathed sword clenched in hand, and disappeared in midair. In Lyn's and Hitomi's trained eyes, they were able to catch up with Rai's speed as he zigzagged thrice in the form of a z, stopping dead-on in front of the mage as he swung his blade towards him with a deadly force. While it may've been harmless as the weapon was in its scabbard, the impact of the blow sent Keiya flying off the roof until he landed on one of the trees nearby the ruined village at the south. All of them had their mixed reactions (from eye rolling to some muttered comments like, "About time!") as they watched him fly far away, eventually looking back at the Sacaean male silently.

"Hmph!" Rai jumped off the roof, landing on his feet effortlessly as he plunged to the ground. Once he got up, he shook his head and looked at all of them with a blank face to hide his humiliation towards his best friend, keeping calm as he dusted his clothes off, "My apologies for the inconvenience. My companion can be so foolish…"

"Damn right!" One of the bandits nearby growled in agreement, waving his weapon in the air. Now, he shot a menacing glare at the swordsman's direction. "And you! Now you're deciding to interfere in something that doesn't concern you! Stay out of it!"

In response, Rai did a backwards flip again (with his sword out this time), giving an uppercut to the man's side when he shifted in that position to avoid getting hit at the front or back. Screaming loudly for he had his arm cut off, the brigand roared in rage and swung his axe in rapid strokes, which Rai had moved away nimbly from. Without warning, something whistled in the air and struck the bandit's back. One, two, three shots were fired.

The man's face froze with an open mouth and wide eyes, and dropped his axe, crumpling to the ground. Everyone looked in shock as they saw three arrows sticking out from his flesh. Now in front of the village's locked gates stood a grinning Wil, who already had another arrow notched into his bow. Frightened and on their guard, the bandits now scattered themselves throughout the vicinity as a strategy to not get killed all at once, some using the walls as their cover.

"So, did I miss anything?" The archer chirped cheerfully, grin still in place.

Returning a smirk to the younger male, Rai shook his head and replied, "No. Things are about to start up. Well, then again, you miss me sending Cythras into a tree after that idiotic stunt he pulled."

"The stunt was not idiotic! It made me look dashing and you're just jealous, Rem!" Keiya complained in a shout, finally catching up to them after falling out of the tree from its canopy (while, on his way down, getting smacked by the many branches in the process). It was a wonder how he was still alive right now when he was high above the ground by a couple of feet. Rai responded to this with a snort, waving his hand off-handedly. Readying his Thunder tome, Keiya chuckled softly, "Now, the real fun starts…"

Lyn's alliance started scattering to have some space for movement, awaiting orders from their tactician.

Feeling the confused stares of Lyn and Hitomi from the back of his head, Rai turned to them and said serenely, "Sorry for not introducing ourselves earlier because a _certain someone _suddenly had the urge to be an idiot (at this statement, he shot a fierce glower at Keiya, who flinched). We came out here to help you as we heard the talk of bandits from inside the village."

"That's all right." Lyn nodded in understanding, her face a little more relaxed out of relief that they had more allies on their side. "We need all the help we can get right now."

"My name is Rem. The archer over there is Wil and the mage, or the fool you saw on the roof earlier, is named Cythras. Cythras and I are travelling together and we only just met Wil the day before."

"We have a battle on our hands, so I'll introduce just the two of us for now. My name is Lyn and the tactician over here," she gestured a hand to the short-haired girl. "Is named Lenore. She can't talk since she lost her voice a couple of days ago, but she has her way of letting us know what her strategies are."

"Is that so…? That's interesting, actually, as nobody's heard of a mute tactician before." Rai murmured intriguingly, observing the girl besides Lyn. Hitomi shook her head furiously and waved aside the swordsman's words, feeling embarrassed.

Their eyes met with a jolt of recognition felt. Rai's eyes widened as he saw the girl's face, finding himself struggling to speak but was at a loss for words. Likewise, Hitomi revealed herself as she grew pale, her breath hitched sharply and her heart was about to stop. She felt the urge to step back from him, but Lyn would suspect something and Hitomi didn't want that to add as further evidence of what the Sacaean princess and her knights already thought of her. So, she kept her face as blank as possible and busied herself writing the battle strategy in the journal for Lyn to see.

In haste, hoping that Lyn's eyes weren't trying to read through her, Hitomi wrote messily: _**Now that we got more people involved, I had to change plans. You are to tell everyone that all of you are to use the walls to your advantage (especially Wil and Cythras since they can shoot arrows and summon magic over the walls). Since there's another village north of the one we're in front of, I need you, Lyn, to have Florina escort you there to warn the people since she's a Pegasus knight and that means she can fly over almost any terrain. There's a hill west of what could've been an entrance leading to that village and that's why I need you two there (and since there'll be bandits that plan to raid that village, I need you two to destroy them). Since she's a Pegasus knight, Florina should avoid archers at all costs. Sain and Kent will go to the east opening to keep bandits from passing through by using the woods there as their cover. As for… Rem… I'm not sure what I plan to do with him. When I do, I'll tell him and have him relay it to the others of what his role will be. Understand?**_

"I understand, Lenore. And um…" Flicking her gaze to the younger woman, she tensed when seeing the apprehension in her eyes. "If you're troubled… Please, talk to me about your problems."

The tactician nodded softly, watching the back of the swordswoman as she trotted over to the rest of the troop. She wasn't considering such an option, like she was going to open her heart to Lyn, because she had no intention to. Now that Rai and Hitomi were left alone together, they stood in an uncomfortable silence. It was then Hitomi decided to give herself away and stepped back cautiously, but Rai wasn't going to let this slide as he took a step forward, closing the distance between them.

"…There's something I need to know and you can tell me if I'm wrong or right. Although since you can't talk, a yes or no would do by nodding or shaking your head. Or you can write in your book if it troubles you so much." Rai spoke in a quiet but serious voice, studying her intently. Yes, there was no doubt that he wasn't hallucinating this – he just had to make sure this was her. There was no way he could forget her face instantly and so easily, not after spending a long time building up a strong bond with her. The calm, stoic look he usually wore softened considerably towards her and he murmured gently, "Ah… No… No, I can't call you that here. It'll raise suspicion with everyone around us, so I'll call you by the name you chose not to use around these people… Hitomi? Is it… Truly you? I never thought that you would use the name, Lenore, again."

The tactician looked away from him and the swordsman could see immediately that her eyes gave away the struggle of an internal conflict, her body shaking a little. To him, it looked like she was about to break. The last time he saw that expression… Was in a time that no longer existed for her, but it wasn't forgotten.

Hitomi faced him while closing her eyes, trying to calm herself down. With a wobbly hand, she held up her quill and wrote in her journal. Whatever she wrote in there was going to be risky, but there had to be a way to let this out. Stopping her hand, she tucked the quill in her cloak pocket, holding out the book for him to see. And when she opened her eyes again, Rai saw a bittersweet expression there: something that was beyond joy but, simultaneously, there was an overwhelming melancholy seemed to have haunted her for a long time.

It was then the myrmidon read the words that he dared not hope to see. It left him washed over in overwhelming waves of surprise, relief, happiness, and bewilderment.

_**How could ever I lie to you…? I would never lie to you about something like this. So, I will be honest. Yes… Yes, big brother Rai, it's… It's me, Hitomi. And I'm so**__**rry if I had left without sending word to Badon. When this battle is over, I will explain myself to you in private, so you would… Understand why I am doing this. **_

* * *

Hitomi: Wow, I wrote a lot, but I had a lot of fun on how this chapter played out (XD especially with Keiya/Cythras being an idiot and Rai/Rem finally flipping out on him). Goodness, it's really fun to portray Keiya like this, the poor, loveable idiot. *snickers*

Next chapter shall be full of action this time! XD However, be warned that I am not good in action scenes as stated last chapter because I am not used to writing such a genre (then again, my D . Gray-Man fanfic, Unravel, has action as one of its genres since it's Exorcists fighting demons, but I'm still not good at it!). *nervous smile* So, please don't kill me for it!


	7. The Four Walled Looking Glass

Hitomi: XD What the Hell, being so productive all of a sudden? ! Ehehe, motivation seems to be growing, which is always nice since I seem to suffer with writer's block often than not. Besides, I need the practice to keep writing, so I can improve (since I feel that my writing's full of mistakes and stuff).

But hmmm… While I know there are mistakes in writing, I wonder if I'm at least doing all right with characterization… Looks like I'm doing fine, as far as I can understand the canon characters introduced so far. Though, I wonder…

XD And I will repeat my warning again: I am not very good at writing action scenes, so please bear with me and don't kill me for it~

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Fire Emblem, Nintendo does. I own my OCs while my friends own theirs.

**Irony**

**Escape VI** | **The Four Walled Looking Glass**

「_Identities, aliases, and the memories that follow them …_

_You cannot shut out everything around you forever,_

_Not if you're already aware that life goes on and_

_No man's an island._

_Do you wish to remain in the past to embitter your present?_」

* * *

She was sure things would work out as she supervised from the west hill how the combatants were faring, her eyes focused on the battle. Everything was going according to plan so far, much to her relief. If she had known earlier this was going to happen, she should've stayed up the night before and worked out strategies. Much as her strategy for the current situation was going well, she felt somewhat dissatisfied. The whole time she was with Lyn on this expedition, it seemed like she always had to do last minute planning and, truth be told, she hated it.

_From now on, I'm working on plans at night. _Hitomi noted adamantly, slowly shaking her head as an afterthought. _I can't keep doing this. I think I should ask Rai about the layouts of the places we'll travel to for the rest of the journey. Since he and that mage must've come all the way from Badon if they got this far. Besides, I've a feeling my maps are outdated, anyway._

Upon having that in mind, she was back to being torn between keeping calm and panicking again. If Rai came this far, it was a more than likely possibility her fiancé, Lord Keiya, had gotten word she ran away from their engagement and sent them to look for her. She should've seen this coming, but she didn't think that she would bump into Rai on the way to Caelin. Oh, why was Elimine against her? Damn it, the trip to Caelin already meant that she had to enter her territory upon arriving in Lycia and that alone made her annoyed about this voyage. But for two of her fiancé's men to look for her and actually crossing paths with her (one of them even knew her personally, to make things worse), that was too much to bear!

In the middle of these conflicting sentiments, another emotion wormed its way in there without her knowledge. And feeling it made her eyes hardened in disdain, her right hand curling its iron grip on her sheathed blade underneath her travelling robe.

_So, my fiancé decided to send his men to go look for me instead of looking for me himself. _She twitched at this, feeling increasingly irritated the more she brooded on it. This was probably the first emotion she had felt in a long time, never mind the fact she had her violent tendencies on Sain whenever he was being a scoundrel. However, that was different because this was her fiancé she felt this way towards to. _I don't know if he's genuinely busy or if he's too busy flirting with every woman he sees, but… For crying out loud, I definitely know he's flirting behind my back because it's like him to! It's his pastime and they don't call him the Natural Playboy for nothing! Such a name circulating and everyone in Elibe knows it… Those women are probably better than me, anyway, as far as their appearances and hobbies are concerned because I'm not like them… Then again, what did I expect from the day this has been placed on me? ! It's an arranged marriage, not a relationship with love and care! _

_Stupid, lazy, womanizing cad! I hate you!_

She closed her eyes, willing to bury all of these feelings once and for all. After taking a few moments to calm herself down, by taking deep breaths and concentrating on the sounds of combat, it wasn't all that difficult to slip back on her indifference. Opening her eyes, she resumed to observe how the situation was unfolding. A flicker of movement caught from the corner of her eye, she turned her head slightly to watch the mage summoning magic to the other side of the wall.

_Cythras, was it? Neither Rai nor Lord Keiya told me about him before and I've had my occasions of meeting the Badon soldiers.__ Very much like my fiancé to have all of his guards only made up of females except for Rai, but this is unexpected. Maybe Cythras is a new addition to the ranks? _She mused, watching as a flash of thunder burnt one bandit from the other side of the wall to a crisp. As far as first impressions went, she had a headache just thinking about what happened on the roof before Rai sent him flying to oblivion, making her frown. _However, there's this strange feeling in my gut about this guy's attitude already…_

oOo

Lyn got out of the now locked village, pocketing the sack of gold in her satchel as she went back to help her comrades. Rai, having been sent by Hitomi to accompany Lyn and Florina, was busy helping the Pegasus Knight take down her opponents due to the disadvantage lances had against axes.

"Everything okay there?" Lyn called to them, Mani Katti in hand as she faced off with a brigand. The bandit took a wide swing downwards, having her barely block it. The two weapons were caught in a struggle of strength, determined to outdo the other. She thought fast as she swung the blade forward, the force making the bandit throwing his limbs up. Seeing an opening, she dove to strike a whirlwind of slashes at his body, trying not to keep herself off guard as much as possible. The opponent merely grunted, managing to deflect the blows as he spun his body, making his axe move wildly. Lyn kept her sword up in front of her as a form of defense, mumbling a curse or two when the weapon had gotten past the defense to wounding her at the leg and at her side. She shifted her feet, ready to retaliate but calculating on how she was going to finish him off when something pushed through from the bandit's gut. It was revealed as a spearhead, pierced from the back. Making incomprehensible, gurgling sounds, the brigand fell forward and a pool of blood gathered under him at a rapid, sickening rate.

Lyn hastily tilted her head upwards to find a weary and panting Florina hovering above the ground by a couple of inches, Huey the Pegasus flapping his wings endlessly.

"I-I thought you needed some help!" Florina wheezed, wiping perspiration from her forehead. She was sporting wounds from one of her shoulders and as well as both of her arms; somehow, she was holding up from the pain when wielding her lance. Perhaps, it was a way to prove that she wasn't useless in battle. Determination for herself and concern for her best friend brimmed in her eyes. "It looked like you were in trouble, Lyn, so I… Was I wrong to interfere?"

"No, you were a great help. Thank you, Florina." Lyn replied gratefully, flashing her best friend a warm smile. "How were you with Rem while I went to warn the villagers?"

"O-Oh! It went fine." She nodded reassuringly, though she smiled nervously. "You know how I am around men, b-but Rem's been helpful."

Both females turned to the direction of the male myrmidon, who was a few feet away and holding off a mercenary. Rai's thin blade was having a little difficulty as it was up against a thick broadsword and he bore wounds at his stomach and arm. Rai growled, eyes leering at his opponent, aware that he was going to have a hard time taking this one down. The mercenary only smirked tauntingly at him, despite his own wounds, flipping forward and meeting his sword with Rai's again. This made the myrmidon suddenly kneel due to how forceful the impact was, but not before earning yet another injury that grazed his forehead.

Deciding that he needed their help, Lyn and Florina hurried there as fast as they could. Florina took to the sky again, using a nearby tree as her cover. Then, she wasted no time plummeting in a nosedive as her lance stabbed the side of the mercenary, pulled it back out, and flew a couple of inches away for her own safety. The mercenary swore loudly, clearly distracted by this and giving the girl a glare that told her he was going to kill her. While this occupied him, Lyn sneakily went behind him and used his disrupted state to her advantage by having her blade aim at his legs. The mercenary now toppled over in surprise and had his full attention on Lyn, attempting to get up and with the intention to strike her down. Oh, he would pay her back for playing dirty like that! Rai's blinding speed, however, made him into a whirlwind of green and gray, his sword stabbing through the opponent's neck, ending his life.

"And to think us Sacaeans are all about honor in battle." Rai wryly chuckled as he withdrew his sword from the corpse and swung it to get the blood off. He eyed Lyn and Florina, nodding approvingly. "Thanks for the help and I commend you two for doing something like that."

"N-No problem at all!" Florina mustered from her nervousness, making an attempt to give a smile, even though it was a shy one. "Glad we could help!"

"Think nothing of it. Besides, it looked like you had trouble." Lyn waved this aside, a sheepish smile on her face forming from the Sacaean comment. "And while we Sacaeans have our honor, these bandits do not, so I say we're fair for sneaking up on them, no?"

"Touché, Lyn."

oOo

At the east right wall, Wil and Keiya were throwing their arsenal at the bandits at the other side, arrows and thunder raining down from the sky. It was a mini war for the opposing side's archers decided to take care of these two, their own arrows whistling into the air and trying to land a hit.

"Hoo boy…" Wil sighed, a tired smile on his face while getting out an arrow from his quiver. He bore one arrowhead from the opponent; it was protruding from his shoulder, but it looked like it gave him no trouble or it could be he was trying not to show his pain. With that, he spun the arrow and lodged it into the bowstring, launching it and saw it made a clean bulls-eye right between the archer's eyes. He ducked from an incoming arrow from another archer, a narrow miss, as he tried to make conversation with Keiya. "These guys are no jest, that's for sure. Bandits are pretty ruthless around these parts."

"But, of course. Dealing with them can be such a pain, though." Keiya agreed with a nod, hands behind his back. His fingers made some signs, signalling a lightning bolt from out of nowhere. However, it missed and the opponent counterattacked, making Keiya hastily turning sideways to shield his vital parts from being targeted. The arrow caught its aim by a forearm, making the mage hiss in pain. With a small frown, he grumbled under his breath in a disgruntled fashion. "Ah, that's going to leave a mark…"

"RAAAAH!"

Both turned around to find a bandit charging towards them, axe ready to strike. It looked like Kent and Sain weren't able to kill this one off quickly, so it had penetrated through the defense of the tactics Hitomi devised. Wil was ready to react, taking out a small blade equipped from behind him – it was normally used as a back up weapon in case he needed to engage in close combat. Regarding how useful archers were in this battle and not wanting him to injure himself further, Keiya gave Wil a knowing look to step aside and take care of the other archers. With a nod to indicate that he understood, the cheerful archer put the blade away and retreated back to the wall, using it as his shield while he tried to make good use of his arrows by trying to aim them at his foes' vital organs as much as possible. Now turning to his opponent, there was barely a twinge of sympathy for him as Keiya knew what his fate would be.

"Hmmm…" Keiya sighed at such boorish yet expected behaviour displayed, shaking his head slowly while eyeing the axe—which was now pointing up to the sky—warily. With a strange glint in his eyes, he explained vaguely, "Now, now, don't be raising that axe too high since metal does attract… Unnecessary things…"

"What are you talking about! ?" The bandit shouted irately, clearly having no time for this guy's foolishness.

ZAP!

With quick movements of his hands from behind his back, Keiya connected his Thunder spell to the axe's blade, frying the bandit instantly with nothing left over. Not even ash or a speck of dust remained.

"Ah, yes, like that… Oh dear…" Keiya mumbled knowingly with a sigh, shaking his head again out of pity as he went back to assist Wil. As he made his way over there, he peered into the distance to find a lone figure on the west hill, watching the battle intently and writing into a leather bounded book in their arms as if taking notes. He noticed that it was that girl from earlier when he was on the roof, the one that glared at him when he had called her and her other female companions angels. It was as if she was insulted by being called that.

_That girl…_ _According to Rai, she can't talk. He also said she was this group's tactician. Is that so… I wonder why she doesn't express herself openly, though, what with that blank face and all. Maybe I should try to talk to her…_

oOo

On the cavaliers' side, things were progressing well in their favor against the enemy.

"Sain," Kent called his companion, cursing under his breath soon after when pain shot up his body. Looking quickly to find blood seeping out from his left side and a blade embedded into it, the redhead came forward and drove his lance through his enemy's chest. When the impaled corpse dropped to the ground and the lance was taken out, Kent carefully removed the opposing blade from his side and applied a vulnerary there. Now turning to his comrade, he called again warily. "If Lady Lenore sees you wielding your lance against the wrong opponent again, she's going to be angry."

"Ah, but Kent, I've been successful with my hits so far!" The other cavalier replied with a cheerful chirp, sure enough a well aimed stab with his lance and into the brigand's leg it went. The enemy tried swaying his axe despite his useless leg, but it barely missed.

"That's just luck." A scoff escaped from the ever serious Kent, deciding to help Sain while he had the chance. Moving his horse forward, Kent brandished his sword and swung it down, decapitating the foe instantly. "Lady Lenore would say so too and she might even think you're bragging again."

"It is not just luck! I've been really successful with it, I swear!" Sain insisted indignantly, applying a vulnerary on his wrist to heal the wound there. A dashing grin appeared on his face as he was back to being the heroic yet flirtatious knight. "Besides, she would be proud of me for not dying from using the lance against an axe-wielding opponent. Why, I may even have such prowess with the lance already!"

"…You really aren't listening to me at all." Kent mumbled darkly, making a noise that was the offspring of a sigh and a groan as he slapped his forehead in dismay.

"What are you talking about, o boon companion of mine? Now, come. We have to hurry and defeat the enemy!" Grabbing his horse by its reins, Sain already sped off. "This can't be good for the ladies at all, not at all!"

"Hm?" Following nearby with his own horse, Kent was mildly piqued at this statement. "Now, what are you worrying about? Lady Lyndis and Lady Florina can fight, obviously, and Lady Lenore is capable of taking care of herself."

"I already know that. I'm talking about the weather. It's too hot and it can't be good for them, Kent. They might get sunburned if kept out here for too long!" It was almost comical to see Sain's brow furrowing in worry at this possible dilemma, he even looked serious about it. Then, he really started to fret as another thought passed through his mind. "Ah! And while I know they fare well in battle, if we keep entering battles this whole journey, their bodies might bear scars if their wounds don't heal properly! Such a shame if that happens in the future, their beauty would be marred by these blasted curs—" And on and on, he babbled incessantly, clearly troubled about the women in their group.

Whether to sigh, laugh or smile at this, Kent didn't know, but he should've seen this sort of response coming. Actually, scratch that: this was expected, just not quite like this. Even so, it was just like his companion to be concerned about the women, even if it was over something this trivial, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Worry about yourself more than for the women. They'll be all right." Kent finally replied with a slight smile, deciding to go on ahead into the skirmish. Keeping his sword out and tightly gripped into his hand, he called to Sain over his shoulder, unable to resist making such a reply, "And if you keep being worried about those kinds of things, the ladies may think you see them as weak!"

"W-What? ! Ah, hey, I didn't mean to make it sound like they are!" Feeling his face going pale, horrified, Sain chased after Kent, waving his lance all the while. "You better not give them the wrong idea, Kent!"

_Heh… _Kent shook his head fondly when hearing his comrade's shouts. _You never change, my friend._

oOo

By now, most of the bandits had either lost their lives to their enemy or decided to flee in surrender. Lyn and the others, while sweaty, tired, and no doubt suffering their fair share of wounds, had victory close at hand. With that assured, they closed in on the last one standing, wanting to end this once and for all. Just one more bandit to take down, Migal being the unfortunate one left, and they were finished with this.

Although the tactician's orders on who would be the one to claim Migal's life wasn't clear, the reaction she had when she saw him bullying Florina earlier was more than enough to tell them that it was their decision on how much suffering the enemy deserved. Lyn and Rai were more than happy to hack and slash him up, the former wanting to give him payback for treating her best friend like that, so their swords had stained with red. Wil, knowing how much misery the villagers went through because of the bandit raids, had his piece of vengeance to fulfill. Having kept himself hidden in a tree, he launched an accurate shot or two at whatever part of Migal's body was vulnerable.

In rage, Migal had counterattacked the two Sacaeans, managing to wound Lyn and Rai out of luck, given how Sacaeans were acknowledged for their speed in battle. The impact of the big axe was strong, however, that Lyn had been sent back to land on the ground while Rai cursed softly as blood steadily trickled down his back. Kent and Sain took this opportunity to pull the two back from the battle before any more damage could be done, letting them settle on their horses and recuperate. The knights, while they had struck the bandit with their swords earlier, weren't faring well, fatigue eventually infusing into their bodies.

Keiya had decided to use the terrain to his advantage like Wil was, blasting Thunder while using another tree nearby as a shield. Much to his bad luck, the spell missed. Even more unfortunately for him, he had gotten a little too close to the enemy and earned a cut at his leg, forcing him to make a hasty retreat. The mage was grumbling incomprehensively, reprimanding himself for being too careless when it was obvious he was no match for weapons. Wil had managed to launch another arrow, but it had a narrow miss, grazing Migal's cheek.

_Not good. _Hitomi assessed grimly, getting up and ready to get over there as fast as possible. Sure, she had faith in her team but things weren't looking so well with the fight with Migal and she was seeing that with her own eyes. She gritted her teeth, cursing all the while in her head on how she had not foreseen this. No… She couldn't afford to make mistakes again, not again! _If this keeps up, we'll have no vulneraries left… Not to mention our weapons would break… A shop would be days away from now, even if we have money. Damn, I have to go now…! Somehow, I have to help…!_

She stopped in her tracks, looking around warily and making head count of her team from a distance. She crinkled her nose, knowing something wasn't right. One more was missing—

That's right, where was—

A disgusting, splattering sound echoed throughout the scenery. Having hidden herself in the air for a long period of time, Florina—now equipped with an Iron Lance from the nearby armory—finally revealed herself. Dropping from the sky, she changed course when she saw the ground coming nearer into her view, making Huey swerved at the last minute as her spear made its way into Migal's stomach. With all of her strength and speed she had no idea she possessed as she pulled her bloodied weapon out, she stabbed him right into the neck ruthlessly. Doing all of this without a second thought and without giving him a chance to retaliate.

There was nothing but a stunned silence gathering from the group. Florina, finally registering what she just did, slid off her Pegasus wearily, her legs shaking. Unable to hold herself up, she plummeted to the ground on her knees, barely holding herself up with her lance still in her hands. Not caring how injured she was, and despite the knights' protests, Lyn immediately went to her best friend's side. Moments after, the Pegasus knight burst into tears, the shock wearing off as she realized what she did.

"I can't believe it…" She murmured over and over again, burying her face into her hands as she cried harder, the weight of lives claimed by her spear heavy on her tiny shoulders. "I killed… I killed…!"

"Oh, Florina…" Lyn looked at her sadly, gathering the girl into her arms for an embrace. To which the orchid haired needed greatly, her head buried into the female Sacaean's shoulders as muffled sobs came out. For the moment, the males couldn't say anything and, out of respect, they chose not to until Florina calmed down. Even Sain and Keiya kept quiet, though it was distressing and difficult for them to see a lady being like this.

Hitomi was still quite a distance away, watching the scene unfold. Whether she truly felt this way or such emotion came out of its own accord, it was hard to tell. It was fleeting as a shooting star, and she barely had a grasp to register what the sentiment was, even confusing—or frustrating, however you looked at it—that it felt alien to her. Then again, it had been long, so damn long. What felt like years—ages—since she last felt anything remotely sentimental from within her locked heart, out slipped an inkling of sympathy for the Pegasus knight in training.

For an instant, the scenery swerved into a blur of colors. No longer was she surrounded by rubble of the fallen villages, old stone walls or the endless green of the surrounding trees. No longer was she within the presence of her comrades — no, she told herself sternly, _colleagues _— and Florina's weeping was nothing more but a quiet but melancholic song of the present whisked away in the wind's whispers. No longer did she feel the blistering sun glaring down at her, the smell of decaying flesh and spilt blood also undetected in the air. The mind, being ever logical and calculatedly alert, was aware on where she was taken to. On the other hand, the sheltered heart in its steely cage of detachment was stuck within an internal conflict of confusion, dread, and denial. And while denial was winning over with detachment teaming up with it, shoving down into the dark depths every emotion present, she was still shaken with dread.

_Where are you taking me? _Her heart demanded, the cage rattling threateningly. _Elimine be damned, I will not let you take me where I don't want to go!_

_ You can deny all you want, _the mind called back calmly, unfazed by the process. _But you already know where we're going, don't you? _

oOo

The scenery started taking shape again, the blurriness now sharpening in focus of details and taking in, if only temporary, a breath of life. Now Hitomi found herself in waves of tall green grass as a light breeze passing through. Although the grass rustled from it, she didn't feel the familiar, tickling sensation caressing her legs. She spotted droplets of water on them as well as the trees surrounding her, a sign that it rained recently. The sun was out from the partially cloudy sky, peeking out to give the world a brightness to drown out the darkness of reality, even if only for a little while.

The surroundings distorted only slightly as a person came into her line of vision. The person was still a child, but one who looked like she barely entered the next life chapter of adolescence. She wore a robe of white and gray, treading though the grass and with what looked like a broken wooden sword in her right hand. No, the older female observed cautiously, keen eyes watching her legs. Though she hid it well, the tactician could tell the younger girl was limping. The girl kept on a straight face, but her dark eyes couldn't hide the emotions that remained there. One part of the robe was stained with red at a bottom with part of the fabric ripped off, revealing a scraped right knee.

Eventually, the young girl found a rock to sit on, wincing as one of her tiny left hand trailed its way down to her right foot to assess its condition. The ankle was swollen, the flesh taking on a tinge of a dark purple. When she tried rotating the foot, she bit down on her lip and refused to let a whimper escape, a flash of pain in her eyes.

"Lenore? !" An unfamiliar voice called in concern from behind the tactician. Footsteps made a swishing sound in the grass, the owner of the voice ran through the tactician like she was merely an apparition. Hitomi looked up just in time to see an older, masculine figure clad in a green tunic and blue trousers running towards her now revealed younger self, bending down to check her injuries. Although she couldn't see his face, she could tell he was distressed to see her like that. In worry and confusion, he questioned frantically, "What happened to you? ! And what happened to your practice sword? !"

The younger Hitomi was fighting to keep her face straight, but it was getting difficult for her.

"Oh… It's nothing too serious. I just…" She was trying to keep her emotions under control, trying to voice her feelings out as calmly as possible. She had to. She had to show him that she was a brave girl and that she was able to deal with pain and the problems that were connected with these injuries. Otherwise, he would make trouble and fight for her sake and she didn't want that. She didn't want to burden him. Damn it, why did her voice have to sound shaky and breathless now? And double damn it, why was he a difficult person to lie to? Why? "You see…"

"Was it an accident?" He asked quietly, inspecting her wounds. While she watched him doing this, it was then his bright eyes met hers, searching for the truth. "Did you get injured in your training session? You don't have to hide it. You already know that you can always tell me anything and I won't judge you for it. I won't force you into telling me, so… Take your time. I'll wait for a long time if I have to, just as long as you speak to me about this."

"I…" Whatever she was going to say died down in her throat at those words, a hard lump suddenly forming there. Those eyes of his – they were expressive, but all-too-knowing. Right now, she felt he could see right through her just as he always did and she didn't know, at this moment, whether she was grateful for it as always or resentful for once.

"Lenore?"

Whether it was his gentle voice or those pleading eyes, the younger Hitomi had no idea. Nonetheless, they unraveled what they wanted—needed—to know, concerning the current circumstances. Without warning, Hitomi burst into tears, covering her mouth with her hands to muffle her sobs. From what the older Hitomi saw, keeping her eyes focused on the male's back, he jolted in surprise from the unexpected breakdown. Then gingerly, he gathered the girl into his arms, one hand running his hand through her long hair to calm her down. As the tactician walked, moving to one side of them to get a better view, she stiffened in shock, now recognizing the male.

How could she forget? No, she could never forget. This was the time when she was back in Sacae to visit her mistress (before she had set off to travel around and made visits to her once a year) and a few other people, not quite used to the royal life back in Lycia. The male with her was accompanying her as an escort and he, too, wanted to take a break from his duties for a bit. While her older brother would've liked tagging along, he had other things to attend to. On this certain visit, however, was one that left a negative impression on her.

"What happened…?" He murmured soothingly, his hand moving to her cheeks to wipe away the tears.

It took her time to say as hiccupping rendered her the ability to speak in coherent, complete sentences, but she was able to her feelings across.

"After training with Mistress, I went off to look for you. I didn't expect a few people—four of them—watching my spar with Mistress, though. They were people I knew, growing up with the tribe and all before being put under Uncle's care. I know I'm still an apprentice in swordplay, but they were mocking me for it. They say that I would never be good enough in the sword arts, that I don't have the fighting spirit for it because my Lycian bloodline was overpowering what little Sacaean blood I have in my veins; therefore, they think my life at the castle has made me soft, spoiled, and naïve, (even though I haven't lived there for that long)… Things like that. They even said Mistress shouldn't waste time on someone who's not worthy to be called Sacaean and told me to go back to Lycia where I belonged because I'm unwelcome here."

The tears continued trickling down her face as she talked in anguish refusing to look at the male out of shame. As the male listened to her calmly, his arms' muscles rippled slightly when he held her tighter, his eyes darkened with indescribable fury. It was already a given that people were cruel, but what right did these people have to be cruel to a child all because of her bloodline and what came with it? Well, to be fair, her uncle had long spoken ill of the Sacaeans, but that didn't mean Hitomi and her brother, Hikaru, were like that. If that were so, her father wouldn't have married their mother (who was only half-Sacaean, anyway) while aware of the risks that came with it – that including losing inheritance of the throne.

"So then," her forlorn voice broke through his thoughts. "I tried brushing their words off by saying Mistress had chosen me to be her apprentice for a reason and I was as much as a Sacaean as they were. However, one of them said words didn't prove anything, so they challenged me to a sword duel. I tried to back out of it, but they started to call me a coward for not accepting their dare and that I was as arrogant and as much of a show-off like Uncle, all bark but no bite. …I ended up accepting their challenge because of that. I hope you understand why I did that… Isaac…"

As new tears burned in her eyes, it was time that anger, raw and smoldering, started to consume her. When the boy, Isaac, looked down at the girl in his arms, he saw her fiery eyes and her taut jaw. As much as he had seen Hitomi being a hothead, this was the first time witnessing her fury. No doubt it stemmed from the fact that she and the Marquess didn't get along, so to be compared to him wounded her pride and gave her one more reason to hate him. Hitomi's tone was changing now; in a flash, her dejected voice was changing into one of suppressed but sharp anger.

"It was only a sword duel with practice weapons. They even said they'll take back their words if I won. So then, one of the boys was to be my opponent and I ended up having to fight this boy named Gale. I knew him before I left Sacae. He was a boastful cad and his attitude hasn't changed one bit. He was actually laughing, saying that I would be crushed by him from the moment I'd swing my sword to strike him. However, I proved him wrong right from the very first strike. Although I admit his prowess with his sword, as he was difficult to spar with, of course I had to deflate him ego down a few notches.

"During the duel, I earned the scraped knee when blocking his sword while I was on the ground. Then, I earned the sprained ankle when he took advantage of my focus on blocking his sword by pulling his sword back, only to make a quick, hard strike at my foot. It was hard, dueling like that, but I still kept going. They probably thought I was going to beg for mercy or thought I was going to surrender because of my injury." While Isaac had given her a brief but hard-eyed look for being so reckless, Hitomi acknowledged it with an unreadable look of her own, perhaps telling him that she was already aware about it and, while sorry for worrying him, she was not sorry for not backing out of the fight. Her voice lowered to a quiet pitch, but he could feel the bitterness escaping from her lips, each word like sharp knives. "In the last moments, my sword broke because of his strength constantly wearing it down, so… He ended up winning. So, Gale and his friends continued to mock me, saying cruel things… Then, left me alone when they were satisfied… Hence…"

She did a little sweeping motion with her arm, indicating herself with it to state the obvious. Wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her other arm, keeping it in place, she mumbled sadly, "I know I'm a crybaby… That's why I was hesitating to tell why I was like this… Maybe I should give up…"

"…Hitomi…"

oOo

"…nore… Lenore… Lenore!" A voice called the dazed tactician out of her reverie. Blinking, the scenery dissolved and out materialized the present time as an agitated but concerned Lyn appeared in her sights.

An inked quill in hand, Hitomi scribbled hastily: _**Ah, sorry, Lyn… What were you saying?**_

"I was remarking that the days of this journey were getting stranger as time goes by, especially now that Wil officially named our group as 'Lyn's Legion.' I was just wondering if you agreed. But…" The Sacaean princess frowned again, clearly worried. "Are you all right? You looked like you were lost in thought."

The tactician did nothing to give away that the statement was, in fact, true. Instead, she nodded to answer Lyn's question while deciding to look at her surroundings. The atmosphere was lighter now, compared to before. Lyn (now leaving the tactician alone once she had reassurance) and Wil were amused as Sain and Keiya were trying to woo Florina while said-girl was hiding behind Lyn, face bright red. Kent had a hand on his forehead, embarrassed and exasperated about the spectacle while Rai, with little amusement she felt, shared Kent's sentiments about his own best friend by rolling his eyes and looked like he was muttering something like, "This idiot…"

"_Never give up.__ Never give up, no matter what. And also, it's hard for people to believe in you if you don't believe in yourself. So, try having a little more faith in yourself. But even if you still struggle with self-doubt, even if many people think you can't do anything, just know that I believe in you." _Those were the words Isaac had said to her on that day; though she didn't see him say that in the flashback stupor she was in, she still remembered them well as they whispered into her heart and mind. As calm as she was, she was feeling oddly peaceful from it unlike when she had been serious in the battle. All because of…

_That's right. _Hitomi thought hard, eyeing the Pegasus knight carefully, so not to be caught staring, studying her. _This girl… This girl did something to me nobody else in the group had done at all… But why? When I saw her like that, I felt…_

_Could it be that she…? _A chill ran down her spine, an unexpected but soundless shiver escaped from the tactician as she had finally averted her gaze away from Florina – although with a little difficulty. _She…_

She had cut off the thought before it could be fully formed, but felt strangely—definitely— misplaced for the first time.

oOo

As much as the villagers, who thanked the group many times over, insisted for them to stay, Lyn's Legion had to decline. Caelin was still a long way off and a lot of ground needed to be covered. Not to mention Lord Lundgren was serious to take the throne, so it was more than likely that he would've sent assassins after them.

So, they were back on the road again. It was still afternoon with the sun still high up in the sky, baking them with its rays. A lot of blood and sweat had been shed during the skirmish, so it was needless to say the whole lot of Lyn's Legion was being uncomfortable with the heat. While Lyn, Florina, Wil, and Rai had light clothing on them, the rest had to endure with armor or thick robes. The tactician wouldn't deny she was perspiring if asked, but she honestly preferred the heat over the cold any day. She felt a little dizzy and a sharp pain pounded at her skull, no doubt from having a not-so-decent sleep the night before.

The arrangement was different this time. Lyn kept in front with Kent and Sain behind her. Rai, oddly enough was saddled on Blitz (although Hitomi really had to insist on him taking the horse since it was one of Badon's finest and she didn't want any suspicions) with Keiya walking beside him. At the rear, Wil and Hitomi decided to place themselves there to keep watch. Florina trailed behind them, taking up to the skies in case of spotting something suspicious.

Somewhere within the forest, someone was watching the Pegasus intently and notched an arrow, waiting for the opportunity to strike to fulfill revenge for taking out the Ganelon bandits earlier. Florina, having not seen anything, lowered herself near ground level, but was still a good distance away from the others. Wil felt something was wrong and stopped walking, looking around slowly. Hitomi, noticing this, gave the archer a questioning gaze, to which he had a forefinger to his lips to not make a sound. Nodding, though wondering if he knew or forgot that she couldn't talk, the tactician was on her toes too. Wishing not to alert the others, Hitomi signaled Wil to to go into the forest to scout around for anything suspicious and he obliged, quiet but agile footsteps making their way in. Meanwhile, she headed towards Florina's direction, intending to give her orders as well just in case.

The archer cursed silently under their breath, now ready to fire. Given the distance, Wil didn't take long to find the enemy, readying his own bow with an arrow to aim at a vital body part. As he made his place behind shrubbery, he cursed silently when he heard a twig snapped under his boot, making the enemy look around wildly in paranoia. Spotting an out of place red brown color at the bush adjacent to them, the enemy archer immediately released the arrow to get it over with.

Coming out of hiding when this happened, Wil shouted at the top of his lungs as his own arrow sailed at his foe, landing a lucky shot, "FLORINA, WATCH OUT!"

Both females heard Wil's voice and saw something flying into the air. The rest of Lyn's Legion turned around with weapons suddenly drawn out, wondering what was going from behind them as they heard Wil yelling an urgent warning to the Pegasus knight. Florina looked frightened once she caught a glimpse of what the flying object was was, unsure if she would be able to dodge it in time as it came within the blink of an eye.

_SHIT! _Hitomi cursed, now breaking off into a full run towards the younger female. Her heart pounded wildly into her chest, the adrenaline kicked in overdrive, and a flurry of emotions—dread, anticipation, frustration and fear, fear, fear—raced in full throttle. She had to get there in time for she was the only one near the Pegasus knight right now. To Hell if it was hot and her head was hurting, she had to save Florina!

The others were also trying to catch up now, somewhat comprehending the situation. How unforeseen—

Closer, closer, closer… The arrow was heading in point black range—

A piercing scream was heard.

* * *

Hitomi: There we go~ I cut it off from there (*evil grin* yes, this is a cliffhanger). T.T; I wonder if I did good in this chapter at all, ahaha…

What happens in the next chapter… ^.~ Well, you'll have to wait and see who got shot by the arrow and what will unfold. Although, I will tell you, the chapter is not a major one (meaning this one doesn't follow the chapter AKA going straight into the fortress to get Dorcas ), but a side-story of sorts. That and I want to explore character personalities as well as have more interactions in here too, so~


End file.
